


Hiding in the Shadows

by Connorperry42



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gen, Niall-centric, Spanking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-11 11:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 43,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4433396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Connorperry42/pseuds/Connorperry42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For over four years the boys had made a horrible error. They hadn't known honestly, hadn't given it that much thought. Now however, Zayn is gone and Harry, Liam and Louis are starting to realize what they've done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Over Four Years

**Author's Note:**

> Alright. This is a first chapter and I'm just seeing how it goes. If no one likes it I'll ignore it and move one. If there's interest I'll update when I can. Thank you. Also disclaimer: I own nothing.

When they were first put together and started making a cd and music videos and their first tour all the boys were as close as brothers. They all knew each other and had their rolls. Louis was the oldest, the protector, he was the first to know if something was wrong with the other boys and he was always the first to defend any of them. Louis was also a prankster and he loved to have fun. Zayn was serious and quiet, creative and got stressed easily but he was loyal and caring, fun to be around. Liam was the one obsessive about their health and if they were on time or if they had slept enough, he was the 'daddy' of the group, which was helpful especially when the boys were on tour. Harry was the curly haired one whom the girls obsessed over and the tallest. Niall was the one with the baby face and the innocence that made everyone coo. Though he was not the youngest all the boys identified him as the one they felt they needed to protect.

And protect Niall they did. The boys were constantly herding Niall away from the crowds so he wouldn't become claustrophobic; they were excluding him from horror movies because they didn't want to scare him. They wouldn't allow Niall to hear about the their nights out or the after parties because they wanted to protect his innocence. Unfortunately when you couple a sudden amount of care and concern among a bunch of teenage boys and the stress of a tour, recording an album, interviews, meet and greets, and all the other duties that came with being the most popular band out there and things can go a bit astray.

Stress brought about agitation and all of the boys seemed to suffer from it. If someone had to share a room with Niall they found themselves kept up more than they'd like because Niall would talk in his sleep. Typically it wasn't so bad, just quiet whispers, but when Niall was stressed he tended to have nightmares and those did pose a problem. Many times Niall had been woken and yelled at by a stressed and sleep deprived band mate in the middle of the night. Soon Niall just got his own room after all there were five boys and two to a room, someone was bound to be left out.

As their popularity grew more and more fans would be outside the venues when they arrived places and the boys soon found themselves overwhelmed. When they were being pulled at by multiple fans the last thing any of the boys wanted was to suddenly have a scared Irish lad clinging to them as well. They started to push him off and complain about what a helpless baby he was. When they all wanted to sit down on one of their rare days on traveling on the bus and watch a movie – horror being their favorite genre – they didn't want to listen to Niall whine throughout and complained about how stupid he was that he couldn't tell the movie was fake and how he was a baby for being scared. When they naturally went from watching a movie to playing video games they didn't include Niall because he hadn't been there and they wouldn't have even teams if they did so meaning someone would need to be left out anyway, why not Niall?

When all the boys sat down to eat and Niall would stumble in late because he'd been at band practice, which none of the other members of one direction attended because they didn't actually play an instrument on stage, and he would load down a plate and shove it into his mouth as quick as possible in the ten minutes they had before sound check all the others would call him a pig and tell him he needed to slow down so he didn't get any fatter.

Now none of the boys really meant what they said or ever meant to hurt Niall. It was their first tour and they were stressed. Liam, Louis, Harry and Zayn seemed to have more in common with each other than Niall did. It always seemed as though they were all one big happy band whenever they were in public so no questions were asked.

Niall felt as though he were inadequate. He knew he was different from all the other boys. Management insisted that he needed correction of his teeth, that they weren't good enough so he had to have braces. He was the one to get the most hate so he knew the fans didn't like him all that much. And then the boys went from caring to disgusted. With so many people telling Niall that he wasn't good enough the boy couldn't help but believe them. After a lot of time sulking Niall decided that if no one was going to help him then he'd just help himself.

Niall made sure to keep his teeth clean and follow all the dentists instructions and sure enough the braces came off eventually and his teeth were perfect, he then made sure to keep them that way. He stopped shoveling food in his mouth when he was in a hurry. If he didn't have the time to eat a proper meal then he just didn't eat – unfortunately that led to Niall missing a lot of meals. In order to fix his body to be like the other boys Niall got a personal trainer. Liam decided he liked that idea and even got the same trainer Niall had – this pleased Niall because he felt as though he'd chosen right. Niall stopped clinging to the boys when he was scared or felt trapped in, he just learned to freak out silently – he blocked out all emotion until he had the chance to go somewhere private and hyperventilate, screw telling the others about his asthma that would do nothing but cause problems.

In addressing his 'stupidity' Niall decided to learn as much as he could. Wherever they went Niall made an effort to learn the native language both spoken and written and over the course of five years he had learned quite a few languages. He was now able to verbally speak as well as read and write in English, Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, German, Russian, French, Farsi, Vietnamese, Korean, Italian, Cantonese, Thai, Hindi, Portuguese, and Polish – sixteen in all and he was working on four more. He studied geography and could tell exactly where they'd been and where they were going as well as numerous facts about any location. He took up drum lessons from Josh, keyboard lessons from Jon, he learned to play the bass from Sandy (not that hard since he already knew the electric and acoustic guitar), cooking lessons from the catering staff at each venue. Whenever they shot a video he would learn how to use the camera, what the director did, what editing did, how they worked in any special effects (if any were used), everything he could possibly learn. Niall also read – everything he could get his hands on from poetry, to fiction, to history, to the classics, to mathematics, to science, and so much more, anything. Niall tried to fix himself.

Unfortunately all of this added pressure led to an increase in stress and with an increase in stress came an increase in nightmares. Niall always roomed alone now, he never slept on the planes, the bus, and the airports or anywhere there were others lest he disturb them. Niall didn't sleep much anymore. For over four years Niall hid in the shadows trying to make himself better.

Zayn had left the band less than a week ago. Everyone was stressed and tense, unsure at the moment of the others intentions despite the fact that everyone insisted they were in this and no one had any plans to leave, ever. Suspicion was only natural at this stage but it would pass, it just took time and reassurance.

This was the first new hotel they were all checking into since Zayn had left and this was the first time in over four years that Niall had been roomed with one of the other boys.

Niall was reasonably nervous as he walked into the room he would be sharing with Harry. The two of them hadn't actually been alone together in over four years and he didn't want to screw this up. Niall knew that with Zayn gone the boys were likely to turn to him when they needed a fourth and he didn't want to disappoint. This was going to be a big week for him, this is when he'd find out of all that work he'd been doing was working. Here's to hope.

"Which bed do you want?" Niall asked as they walked into the room.

"Doesn't matter to me" Harry said as he followed.

Niall just nodded and placed his bag on the first bed he saw then turned to Harry, checking to see if he got it right.

"Fine" Harry sighed, Zayn had always let him have the bed by the air controls, "But it better not get too hot or too cold in here"

Niall gulped, he'd screwed up already. "You can control the temp." he tried to appease.

Harry just grunted in response before he dropped his bag on the other bed, stomped over and fiddled with the room controls then left. Niall watched Harry go in despair; he hadn't meant to cause problems. He looked at the temperature and noted that it was a bit warmer than what he was used to but he wasn't about to complain or even dare to touch it. As he looked at the time he realized it was starting to get a bit late, he gathered his nightclothes from his bag and headed into the bathroom figuring he'd shower before Harry ever got back and then get in bed that way he couldn't possibly be in the way.

Harry had left the room in order to catch his breath. He'd been too hard on Niall, it wasn't fair to compare the lad to Zayn, they were two totally different people. Niall had tried to be nice and offered him first dibs on bed, it was his own fault for shrugging it off. Sighing as he finally collected himself Harry figured he'd just head back into the room, shower and then catch an early night.

With his mind made up Harry walked back into the hotel room only to find that Niall was already in the shower. Zayn always let him shower first! Agitated again Harry started pounding on the bathroom door "Niall, you'd better not use all the hot water in there!" he warned.

Niall jumped, crap, how had he possibly screwed this one up? Still, so as not to piss Harry off more Niall turned the knobs to cold, the shower was quick and he was freezing by the time he got out but Harry wouldn't be mad at him.

"There'd better be hot water left" Harry snarled in greeting when Niall finally stepped out of the bathroom seven minutes later.

"There's plenty I swear" Niall stuttered out as he hurried past an irritated Harry and into his bed.

"I'll see about that" Harry said as he stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door before locking it.

Niall turned on his side and laid under his covers shivering, he was suddenly grateful Harry liked it so warm. When Harry came out of the shower almost an hour later he seemed calmer however Niall feigned sleep so as to avoid doing anything that could possibly upset his roommate.

Harry looked over at Niall feeling guilty; he hadn't meant to snap at the boy. He had beaten himself up while he was in the shower for what he'd said and was planning on apologizing when he got out but Niall was already asleep. Shrugging he just flipped off the lights and figured he could apologize in the morning.

Niall was still as a statue as Harry got into bed and practically sighed in relief when the lights went out. He just hoped that the following day would go better. Alas his hopes were not to be as he was shaken awake by an irate Harry at two thirty that morning.

"Will you stop screaming!" Harry demanded once Niall was finally sitting up and panting.

Niall looked over at Harry and blushed, "Sorry"

"Honestly, I remember now why no one wanted to room with you" Harry said shaking his head as he crawled back into his own bed hoping to catch a few more hours of sleep before they had to get up.

Niall sat there silently berating himself as he realized that he'd had a nightmare. He hadn't meant to, really, it was just one thing that he'd never fixed in all this time. That's not to say he didn't try though, he tried everything he could, it's just that none of it had worked. Once he was sure that Harry was out cold Niall gathered his clothes and snuck to the bathroom to get dressed before heading out of the room. Yes it was early but he was certain he could find a little hide away where he would be able to read without disturbing anyone. Currently he was reading autobiographies from people who had survived world war two. They were fascinating and he was really getting to see numerous different perspectives having not limited himself to any one side or group. Eventually he stumbled upon the stairwell, the only out of the way space where there was light, space enough to not feel trapped in, and he couldn't possibly disturb anyone.

Harry rolled over and groaned when his alarm clock went off. As he sat up and stretched he recalled what a jerk he'd been to Niall last night. The poor kid had been screaming in his sleep and all Harry had done was yell at him for it. To be fair, Harry had been awoken out of a dead sleep to Niall screaming in what sounded like German – seriously since when did Niall speak German? – and he'd been scared himself. Still though he really needed to apologize, he'd been nothing but a dick this entire time.

When Harry went to apologize however he found that Niall was no longer in the room and neither were his things. Sighing Harry figured he'd have time to apologize at breakfast and gathered his things as well – they were heading off after the concert that evening.

Niall however had left the hotel early in order to make his gym appointment with his trainer and have time to shower before band practice, which he had to rush out of in order to, make the interview. Breakfast just didn't happen. He caught Harry's eye at one point but wasn't sure what to make of the face Harry made. It wasn't angry but it wasn't pleasant, what did that mean? Shaking his head Niall moved on with the rest of his day.

After the interview there was a meet and greet and then finally Niall was able to grab a quick sandwich before rushing down to his drum lessons and then his keyboard lessons before getting a full hour to himself until he had to be at rehearsals. Niall decided to spend this hour seeing how the boys would react to his presence.

The boys had gotten a late lunch after the meet and greet – the rest of the crew having already had time to eat while the boys were busy – and then settled in the lounge room that had been set up for them.

"So whose up for a game?" Liam asked.

"Definitely" Harry agreed.

"I'm on Harry's team" Louis called.

"Then I'm with..." Liam paused.

"Niall?" Harry suggested. He still needed to apologize to the boy, he'd tried to earlier but they'd all been so busy and he'd never gotten the chance.

"Alright Niall" Liam smiled, "Where is Niall?"

All three boys started looking around the room but they saw no sign of the lad in question, "Did either of you see him at lunch?" Louis asked.

Both Harry and Liam shook their heads in the negative, "Haven't seen him since we got done at the meet and greet" Liam said.

"I just tried calling him but he's not answering" Harry said putting his phone back in his pocket.

Everyone sighed and put the controls away, "Movie then?" Louis asked.

"How about insidious chapter 2?" Harry suggested.

"I'm up for that" Liam agreed.

And so the three lads were sitting watching a horror movie when Niall walked into the room an hour later. Niall had been feeling rather good up until he'd entered the lounge; Josh had just said he had nothing more to teach him meaning that his drum lessons were over and Jon had said much the same thing – that was two things he could now cross off his list. Productivity was a good thing. However as he took a look at what was on the screen he flinched. Niall had seen enough blood and beating in his life that he had no desire to watch it on a television screen, horror movies just triggered too many bad memories. Sighing he turned around and skulked out of the room. Not knowing what else to do Niall moved down to the kitchen area and decided to see if anyone would give him a cooking lesson.

The rest of the day sped by for the boys; they had rehearsals then sound check followed by a concert. After the concert they were ushered onto the bus for a three-hour drive to their new destination. On the bus the boys just curled up on their bunks too tired to do anything else. Not wanting to disturb anyone with his nightmares Niall just sat in the front room and read his book.

Once they all arrived at the new hotel they were woken up and dragged to their room. Tonight Niall was sharing a room with Liam; he hoped it went better than the last. Taking a few precautions to insure some success Niall had showered on the bus while the others were sleeping and he made sure he was the last one in the room, which gave Liam the chance to choose his bed first. Only when Liam was asleep did Niall lay down. He honestly had no intention of sleeping but he hadn't slept well the night before and he'd made himself stay awake on the bus, the bed was soft and he really hadn't meant to.

Liam was startled awake not even three hours after having drifted off to loud screaming in what sounded like Japanese, what the hell? It took him only a minute before he noticed a thrashing Niall on the next bed over. Groaning he got out of bed and started to wake the lad. He'd thought he was being gentle but in his sleep-addled brain Liam hadn't noticed how strong a grip he'd taken on the boy's thin shoulders.

Niall woke up to pain and an irritated Liam glaring at him, "Are you awake now?" Liam grit out. Niall just nodded hesitantly while trying to catch his breath and was extremely thankful when Liam finally let go of his shoulders. "Good, now go to sleep" Liam instructed, "And keep it down would you?"

Like the night before Niall had waited Liam out before packing up and slipping out of the room taking note of the forming bruises on his shoulders from Liam's grip. He stowed his things on the bus and searched his phone for a twenty-four hour bookstore. He'd finished all the books that he'd packed and needed more especially now that he didn't have his daily music lessons, those had been a good way to kill two to three hours a day depending on how long Josh and Jon had been willing to work with him. Eventually he found what he was looking for and managed to slip out unnoticed, a skill he'd perfected over the past five years.

Thankfully there was next to no one out in the middle of the night and Niall had the entire bookstore to himself aside from the lone cashier, an eighty-year-old man who wasn't very informed on current music. Niall enjoyed his shopping, taking the time to look over every book and he found over ten new biographies, three new books on world war two, a couple of books on Latin and Dutch, and he also grabbed a few fiction books for the fun of it, recently he's been discovering dickens and wanted to try out great expectations and Oliver twist. After a very productive – four hour – outing Niall found himself back on the front room of the bus curled up with a book in his lap.

Another busy day led to another late night arrival at yet another hotel in a new city. This time they were staying for three days and Niall was roomed with Louis. Once again Niall made sure he showered on the bus and he allowed Louis to enter the room first and choose a bed before Niall even through about walking past the door. That night however Niall managed to have another nightmare, there was a difference though, there was no one shaking him awake.

Louis had been awoken by Niall's screams only unlike Liam and Harry he didn't get upset. As much as Louis was known for being the goofball he was extremely protective and he hated seeing one of his best mates in distress. He hurried over to Niall and sat him up, wrapping the boy in a hug and trying to soothe him. Niall kept thrashing and he was begging but Louis couldn't make out what he was saying since the boy was speaking Spanish.

"Shh..." Louis begged, "Please just calm down, please. It's alright whatever it is, everything is going to be fine"

Eventually Niall did wake up and blinked in confusion, "Louis?"


	2. The Plan

Hearing Niall's voice Louis sighed in relief, he just didn't think he could take anymore of the desperate pleading even if he didn't understand what the boy was saying; he still understood the pain in the voice.

Now that he was alert Niall quickly became aware of what had just happened. Shame and confusion warred over him. He was ashamed that he'd screwed up – again. That he'd woken yet another bandmate in the middle of the night because he couldn't have a silent nightmare – because let's face it, having no nightmares just wasn't gonna happen. More than anything though he was confused; why was Louis sitting with him? Why wasn't Louis yelling at him or shaking him? He didn't understand.

"Niall?" Louis asked after a few moments of silence, "You alright?"

"Yes" Niall cleared his throat, "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry for waking you" he said as he slipped out of Louis' grasp.

Louis was confused but he let Niall up, "It's fine. I don't mind"

Niall shook his head, "I shouldn't have done it. I'll be quiet from now on"

Louis sighed, stood up and took Niall's wrist, dragging him back to the bed, "It's fine, let's just lay down and get some sleep"

"I'm fine, slept enough"

Louis snorted, "You've had a total of two hours of sleep, that's no where near enough for either of us"

Niall tried to argue but Louis wasn't listening. Instead Louis gently forced Niall to lay back on the bed, he wrapped his arms around the shaking boy and refused to let go. Eventually both boys drifted off into a deep sleep.

Louis was the first one up in the morning and he was a bit surprised at first to feel a slight weight in his arms. He looked down and saw Niall sleeping peacefully while using his chest as a pillow. As he recalled the events of late last night he couldn't believe that he'd forgotten. Years ago – before Niall started rooming alone – Louis would often be the one to room with the boy because of the nightmares. The fact that the others had been rather tired these past couple of days started to make since; Niall must have awoken them at some point during the night.

Niall's phone went off and interrupted Louis' musings. Niall groaned and shifted as he awoke. "Morning sunshine" Louis greeted.

Niall blinked up at Louis in confusion, why was the man still there? Why was he being so pleasant? Why had he stayed with Niall last night? Niall didn't get it. Louis kept watching him, waiting and eventually Niall replied, "Morning"

"So... Why is it that your alarm is set for...." Louis paused to take a look at the clock, "five in the morning?" if he remembered correctly Niall wasn't one for getting up before seven unless necessary.

Niall shrugged as he sat up and stretched, it felt so good to actually sleep. "Got a session with my trainer"

"Oh" was all Louis said in reply. He sat there silently stunned as he watched Niall gather his clothes and walk to the bathroom. He'd forgotten about Niall having a trainer.

"So will you be joining us in the lounge later?" Louis asked as Niall changed.

Niall paused on the other side of the door, would he? He had nothing going on after his cooking lesson, he'd planned on grabbing a bit of breakfast but he didn't really need to eat. In truth he hadn't eaten breakfast in... well that's not the point. "Sure"

Louis smiled in victory, "Brilliant, you're on my team for FIFA later"

Niall felt a smile pull at his lips, a real smile, "OK"

Louis let Niall alone after that and didn't think much of it when he didn't see the boy at breakfast, he never saw Niall at breakfast. As he, Harry and Liam started gathering their controllers and setting up the game though Louis started to wonder just how long Niall's training session was.

"Sorry I'm late" Niall apologized in a hurry as he barreled into the room; his cooking lesson had run a bit longer than expected.

"It's no problem" Louis smiled.

Niall looked over at Louis and saw that the man was calm but a quick look at Harry and Liam showed that the two of them were a bit agitated, probably because of his tardiness. He needed to find a way to appease them. Looking around Niall noticed the table of snacks and drinks, "I'm just gonna grab a cuppa, anyone want anything?"

"I'll take one and a cereal bar" Harry said.

"I'll take a soda and some Doritos" Liam said.

Niall nodded as he took the orders and started gathering the items, "Louis?"

"I'm good thanks" Louis replied.

Once Niall had put Harry and Liam's requests on a tray he brought them over and placed them on the table before grabbing his own drink and sitting down next to Louis.

"Here" Louis said handing over a controller. Niall thanked him and took it.

All the boys played until it was time for lunch. Harry, Liam and Louis all started heading towards the room that was set up with food. Niall however had band practice to get to and he was already running five minutes late as it was. Not wanting to disturb the others Niall had hung back to clean up the mess and then sprinted towards the stage.

Niall ended up being late to practice but he made it in time for his first song so it all worked out. After band practice he joined the other boys for sound check and ended up missing lunch but that's no big deal, he'd missed lunch many times before. Once sound check was up they had a meet and greet and then time for a quick supper of soup and then the concert.

The end of the night found Louis and Niall back in their hotel room where Niall nervously fiddled with the end of his shirt as he debated what he should do. "You can shower first" he offered.

Louis shook his head, "You go, I can wait"

Niall nodded hesitantly as he gathered his things, was this some sort of test? Was Louis waiting to see if he used all the hot water and then yell at him like Harry had? Was Louis going to time him and yell if he took too long? Niall didn't know. To be safe he took a cold shower and hurried out in under ten minutes.

Louis had let Niall go first because the boy looked as though he needed a shower, his hair was matted down to his head by sweat and there were sweat tracks running down from his forehead to his chin. Louis was floored to see Niall out of the shower so soon, "You forget something?"

"No" Niall shook his head and crawled under his covers doing his best not to shiver, "It's all yours"

Louis just gave Niall a curious look before shuffling off to the bathroom himself. By the time he got out Niall was already asleep.

The next two days were much the same as the last. Niall woke up on the second night screaming and found Louis right next to him soothing him and making him go back to sleep. On the third night Niall pretended to sleep and laid there until he was sure Louis was out cold before gathering his things and heading for the bus – they were leaving after their next concert anyway. During the day Niall would train every morning – with his trainer or not – and then have a cooking lesson before serving the boys snacks and drinks and then either playing a game with them or sitting there in silent fear as they watched a horror movie. After Niall cleaned up the lounge he would go to band practice before finishing the day with the boys in whatever activity they were assigned. He ate less than usual but he had the boys' acceptance and that was what was most important to him. After their last concert all the boys were ushered onto the bus, the door was closed seconds before the massive vehicle started moving.

"So who wants to shower first?" Harry asked clapping his hands together.

"I don't care just so long as there's enough hot water when it's my turn" Liam sighed as he slumped down onto the couch.

"Agreed" Louis said.

Niall just stood off to the side quietly letting them work it out for themselves as he's done many times before. Typically Niall showered last and there was never any hot water for him. It used to be these types of days were the only ones where he had to take a cold shower but that was obviously no longer true; he now took a cold shower every night.

"Right then I'm heading in" Harry smiled as he took off.

"Just make sure there's enough hot water left for the rest of us" Louis called.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" was all that he got in return.

Niall just shook his head before slipping back to his bag and grabbing his current book. He also gathered a change of clothes and then went to the top floor where he knew no one else would be hanging out for another couple of hours. He curled up on a couch in the very back and just sat and read.

Eventually all the boys had showered but Niall and they started making their way up to the top of the bus with their bags to where there bunks were located. Niall took note when Liam first appeared – naturally daddy direction being the first one to go to bed – and headed downstairs where he was almost certain the shower would be free. One cold shower later and he was curled up in a blanket sitting on the couches downstairs reading, he couldn't afford to fall asleep on the bus Louis might not get mad about the nightmares but the others certainly did. Also Niall felt bad keeping Louis up with his screaming, it wasn't fair to the older man.

With very little else to do Niall found himself alone with his thoughts that night. He couldn't help but go over how the first real week without Zayn had gone. He'd annoyed both Liam and Harry with his nightmares and had even ended up with a couple of bruises though they weren't anything too serious. He had annoyed Harry by his choice of bed and use of the hot water but he was fixing those things and it wouldn't be hard to remember. Louis seemed to like having Niall on his team during video games so that was a good thing. Niall wished they didn't watch horror movies and he'd barely made it through the one film, he'd have to come up with some excuse if they were to watch another. Harry and Liam didn't seem to mind his presence so long as he got things for them and he could do that. He could easily do that. If it meant that the boys would tolerate him then Niall could be the ... well ... servant for lack of a better word. With a plan made Niall then used the rest of his night to do a bit of reading.

Sometime around eight he heard movement from upstairs and figured that the others would be down soon. Knowing that all three boys were typically hungry in the morning after a concert night Niall got up and made some pancakes, fruit and home made syrup. He had just finished washing the last pan when Harry and Liam made their way to the table.

"Food" Harry said smiling upon seeing the massive plate of pancakes.

"I'm starved" Liam said sitting down.

Both boys loaded down their plates and Niall frowned a little as he noted how much they took. He hadn't planned for them to both take so much; there was only about one serving left. Oh well, that would be for Louis. Shaking his head Niall left the kitchen/dining area and headed up the stairs to put his book away. When he got to the bunks he noticed that none of the other boys had made their beds and decided to just go ahead and take care of it himself.

By the time Niall made it back down to the kitchen all the food had been eaten and the dishes put in the sink. Well at least they liked his cooking, the lessons obviously worked – he'd have to keep up with those. Noting that the dishes weren't going to go anywhere by themselves Niall put in his headphones and got to work, all the rest of the boys were in the back watching a movie anyway and Niall definitely didn't want to be apart of that.

After the dishes were done Niall looked at the time, they were to be arriving at their next hotel in under ten minutes. Deciding to be helpful he went up to the bunks and grabbed everyone's bags so that they wouldn't have to worry about them. When the bus pulled up and all the boys realized that their bags were by the front door of the bus they smiled and walked off. Niall couldn't help but be pleased with himself; his plan was working.

For the next two months Niall made it his mission to learn all of the boys' likes and dislikes and to make sure that he was always one step ahead and had everything planned out.

At the hotels Niall would wait until whomever he was rooming with had already chosen their bed before putting his things down. On the bus he would stay in the sitting room on the bottom half all night so as not to disturb anyone. He made sure to take quick cold showers so that he didn't inconvenience any of the boys. If they were traveling he always had breakfast or lunch or whatever meal they were on the bus for ready and on the table when the boys walked in. He served the snacks and cleaned up the lounge at the venues. He did the laundry and folded and put each item away. He made the beds. He did everything – and the boys were tolerating him!

Niall felt as though he had finally done it, as though he had finally bettered himself. Sure it came with a few sacrifices and sure he was eating less now than he was before but he was being accepted. He was allowed to play video games with the boys and they even invited him to play football with them – twice! Niall had been amazed when they pulled out an actual football, back home if he'd ever taken the time to go play a game of football with the other kids in the neighborhood they'd only ever had a home made ball to kick around. A real football rolls so much better than the homemade kind. In short, to Niall, everything was perfect – with only one exception.

Niall's nightmares had gotten worse. Whenever he slept now he would have one. Used to be that he would get at least one, maybe even two, peaceful nights a week but not anymore. Of course this irritated the other boys to no end, it had to. Liam and Harry never took kindly to his screaming and he often woke up to a pain in his shoulders from those bruises that just didn't get the chance to heal, ever. Louis never acted irritated but he had to get upset when he was woken up every time he shared a room with Niall. Still the only time Niall ever got a decent nights sleep anymore was when he roomed with Louis. If it was only for a night then there was nothing Niall could do about it, he'd fall asleep but if it was for multiple nights then Niall would make himself stay awake after the first night so as to let Louis get some actual sleep.

Over the course of the next two months Louis found himself slowly noticing Niall more and more. At first it was the nightmares that brought Niall to Louis' attention. Every time Louis shared a room with Niall the boys seemed to have a nightmare on the first night however, after that first night there didn't seem to be an issue – it was odd. When Louis talked to Liam and Harry they both said that Niall always had nightmares when he roomed with one of them.

Another thing Louis was noticing was how often Niall wasn't around. The boy was never at meals with them and he didn't watch movies with them but he was always there if one of them needed something. It didn't make sense. Also whenever Niall came out of the shower he would practically bolt to his bed and hide under the covers, what was that about? And another thing, how many times a week did Niall meet with his trainer? Louis had asked Liam who'd said that he only met with the trainer two times a week and thought that Niall was on the same schedule. If that was the case then why was it that every morning Niall would say he had to workout? And why did those workouts last over three hours on average? Honestly Louis was starting to become a bit concerned about Niall.


	3. Shadowing

"Hey who's rooming with Niall tonight?" Liam asked looking up from his phone to the other two in the room with him.

Currently the boys were all on the bus. They were heading to their next location and should be there within the hour so Liam felt now was an important time to discuss the room situation. This would be their longest stop yet. They were going to have an interview today along with rehearsals then tomorrow there'd be another interview, a meet and greet, sound check and a concert. After that though they had three days to themselves before their next day of work, they'd be at the location for two more days after and they would all be staying in the hotel the entire time. Whoever was rooming with Niall tonight was rooming with him for the entire time – all seven nights.

Harry groaned, "Please not me, I need to sleep"

"That's precisely my point" Liam said.

"He's not that bad" Louis defended, "and it's not his fault he has nightmares"

"He wakes me up screaming every night I have to share a room with him" Harry argued.

"And it's always in some crazy language" Liam added.

Louis just shook his head, "It's only the first night in a new place, he's fine the rest"

Harry and Liam shot Louis looks of utter disbelief, "It's never just the first night. If it were just the first night I wouldn't care" Liam said.

"It's every night, it's always every night" Harry stressed.

"No. He only ever has nightmares on the first night" Louis corrected.

"For you maybe" Harry snorted.

"If he only ever has nightmares on the first night for you then he's all yours" Liam said, "I'll room with Harry"

"Yes!" Harry cheered, "Sleep!"

Louis rolled his eyes at the younger boy's dramatics, "Fine. I'll share with Niall" and it was settled, Louis would be rooming with Niall for seven days.

Niall was gathering the boys things from where they'd been strewn around the bus and packing their bags in preparation for their long stop. By now he'd learned that all the boys had certain things that they just couldn't be without for long lengths of time, long being anything more than a single night. Harry just had to have his laptop and Liam never remembered his phone charger, Louis was obsessive about his video game collection and the memory cards so that he never has to go back and repeat a level that he's already beaten.

Niall was a bit nervous about this upcoming stop. He knew that no matter who he roomed with he'd annoy them, his nightmares would keep both of them up and that wasn't good. Maybe he'd get lucky and room with Louis then he could get some actual sleep the first night, force himself to stay awake for a couple of nights and then on their down time he could take naps while Louis was out of the room so he would be able to stay asleep those nights. The only issue he'd run into was on the second to last night and, well, two nights out of seven wouldn't be too much of a problem for Louis. Still though, as much as Niall would like that to be the case he knew it was Liam's turn to room with him and Liam wouldn't be so patient. Niall winced at the thought of his bruises getting any worse but what could he do?

"Alright let's go" Louis called not five minutes after Niall had finished packing everyone up and setting the bags by the door, wrenching Niall from his panicked thoughts.

Harry and Liam both grabbed their bags and rushed off the bus not even bothering to question if all that they needed was in them or how they were already at the door when neither boy had done any packing. Louis watched the other two go in amusement, they were such goofs sometimes. Unlike the others though Louis did wonder how his stuff was at the door and he bent down to check his bag, just to be sure.

"It's all packed" Niall informed Louis. He was a bit confused; Louis hadn't checked his packing in weeks, why now?

Louis looked over at Niall, "How do you know?"

Niall shrugged, "I did it" he answered simply before grabbing his own bag and walking off the bus.

Louis froze for a second – Niall was the one packing their bags? How had he not noticed? What else hadn't he noticed? He shook his head and grabbed his bag, vowing to find out what else he had been missing.

Niall followed the others up to the hotel and waited in the elevator for Louis. Niall hated elevators, they were small and you were crammed in there with a bunch or people and they could break or the power could go out and you'd be stuck in them for who know how long. Anything could happen. He had tried to talk security into letting him take the stairs for a long time but he was always shot down saying it was safest for all of them to take the elevators because the occupants of the car could be controlled where as the occupancy of the public stairwell could not.

Louis stepped into the elevator and took a good look at Niall, something he hadn't done in a very long time. At first glance the boy looked fine, a bit closed off but otherwise no worse for the wear. When Louis took a closer look however he noted that Niall's hands were balled into fists and he was shaking ever so slightly, like he was scared. But that didn't make sense, why would Niall be scared of an elevator? It was just a little car that... it hit him then, what was wrong with Niall, he remembered. Niall was claustrophobic. How could he have forgotten! How does one forget that one of their best mates is claustrophobic? What kind of a jerk would do such a thing?

Silently berating himself Louis moved back towards Niall and used his free hand to gently wrap his arm around Niall and stroke the younger boy's arm soothingly. Niall jumped at the touch and looked over at Louis in shock but couldn't deny that he felt more relaxed, more at ease and it was... he didn't know, calming? Comforting? Before he had the chance to properly analyze what Louis was doing – or more importantly why he was doing it the elevator had arrived at their floor. Niall blinked in surprise as they stepped out, that hadn't been as bad as it usually was.

"Alright then Liam and Harry have fun, Niall you're with me" Louis instructed, "Meet back here in two hours so we can head to the interview"

"Yes Mum" Harry said cheekily, rolling his eyes and heading off to a room a little ways down the hall.

"I'm rooming with you?" Niall asked confused. Sure he'd hoped to room with Louis but that didn't mean he thought he'd actually get his wish.

"Yeah" Louis chuckled, "Why you not want to?"

"No" Niall said quickly, "I mean... yeah. Yeah rooming with you is fine"

"Brilliant then let's go" and with that Louis was off down the hall in the opposite direction of Liam and Harry.

Not knowing what else to do and, definitely not wanting to go try and room with the other two, Niall followed Louis down the hall. When he got to the room he found that Louis had taken the bed near the door; that was odd, usually Louis took the bed by the window, said he liked the view. Shrugging it off Niall just set his things down on the far bed and started to put his things away.

Louis had walked into the room and set his things down first so that he would be able to intercept Niall when the lad went to leave the room in the morning. He wanted to know what it was that Niall did for three hours every morning in the gym. Training was one thing but this just felt like something else to Louis and he wanted some answers. He was starting to get a few answers today and he wasn't liking them.

Louis watched as Niall set his things down and then pulled out a book, when did Niall start carrying books around? Louis wanted to ask but he bit his tongue, he had a plan, he was going to observe Niall over the next day and a half and then, when they had the three days to themselves, he'd take his findings and do something about them – hopefully Niall would take it well.

Niall could feel Louis' eyes on him the rest of the day but he ignored it. After rehearsals it was late and Niall still had band practice, the rest of the band had eaten supper while they were at the interview and the other three boys were going to eat now but Niall couldn't, oh well, what's a day without supper? Though, if he were honest he hadn't gotten lunch or breakfast either – Harry and Liam sure ate a lot and there was only so much food on the bus – oh well he could go a day without food, he'd done it plenty of times before.

Louis watched in concern as Niall left the group after rehearsals. He didn't know where Niall was going but he didn't react in time to follow him, the boy was quick. Shaking his head Louis just followed the other two to where the food was kept hoping that he'd see Niall there at some point. Unfortunately Louis did not see Niall even though he stayed until all the food had been put up for the night and he was shepherded back to the hotel.

When Louis opened the room door he saw Niall curled up in a ball on the bed, asleep. How did Niall get past him? Or had Niall just not gone down to eat? Maybe the boy had ordered room service? Louis didn't think so, there was no tray out by the door or anywhere in the room and the room didn't smell of food. Sighing he let it be and decided that tomorrow he'd just follow Niall all day to see what the lad got up to, maybe that would help.

As expected Niall had a nightmare that night and, as expected, Louis comforted the boy and pulled him back to bed. Niall did enjoy rooming with Louis. The following morning both boys were awoken by the beeping of Niall's alarm, groaning Louis rolled over fully intent on getting more sleep when he remembered, he was going to be Niall's shadow today. Sighing he got up out of bed and got dressed while Niall was in the bathroom.

"Ready to go?" Louis asked when the bathroom door opened.

"Um..." Niall was confused, "What?"

"I thought I'd work out with you" Louis explained gesturing to his clothes.

"Alright?" Niall said before giving Louis one last confused glance and heading out the door. He wasn't sure this was such a good idea; he had a busy morning. He was working out with his trainer for an hour followed by two hours of working out on his own – didn't need anyone telling him he was fat again especially not now that he was back to hanging around the boys. After that he had an interview then he had a meet and greet followed by band practice and then sound check then he had an hour off before the concert. How long was Louis planning on following him? And when was he going to fit in his cooking lesson?

Niall hadn't even noticed that they'd arrived at the gym until he heard his trainer's voice, "Morning Niall, and Louis today as well? Alright then"

"Sorry to just drop in on you. Wanted to see what Niall was so busy doing for three hours every morning" Louis greeted.

"Three hours?" Mark, the trainer, questioned, "Every morning?"

"Yeah" Louis answered a bit unsure of himself. This is where Niall said he went and it was always for at least three hours.

Mark looked over at Niall in confusion but Niall just shrugged and clapped his hands together trying to redirect the conversation, "So we gonna get started?"

"You do know that the sessions I have with Niall are only for an hour twice a week?" Mark asked Louis.

Louis looked skeptical and shook his head; "Niall works out every morning for at least three hours"

Niall didn't like this line of conversation, "Louis I thought you said you were just here to work out with me not question everything?"

Louis sighed and bit back his response, he was here to just work out and the questioning was coming later it was just so hard, "Yeah, sorry. Let's get started shall we?"

Mark looked from one to the other before shaking his head and storing the information in the back of his mind for a later date, "Right well first up is stretching"

After that the two boys spent the next hour working out. By the time the hour was up Louis felt like passing out. How did Niall do this every morning? Mark left as soon as the hour was up because he had to go meet with another client via Skype, apparently he had the same client on the same days he had Niall so he never stayed to see that Niall stopped. Louis waited for Niall to stop working out after Mark left but the boy just kept on going, where did he find the energy?

"I thought you wanted to work out?" Niall questioned when he saw Louis take a seat.

Louis looked up at Niall in shock, "Isn't that what we just did?"

"That was a warm up"

"A warm up! What the hell's the work out then?" Seriously, Louis felt as though his limbs were on fire! He didn't think he'd be moving anytime soon and yet Niall had just gotten on the treadmill and set it for a run. Did this boy consume anything other than caffeine and sugar?

Niall looked over at Louis, he could see the man was tired. Well he tired quickly too when he first started this but over the years it's just become normal, easy. "Then head out, shower and get breakfast, you don't have to stay"

Louis just shook his head, "I'll wait for you"

"Are you sure? I'm gonna be a bit"

"I'll wait"

Niall sighed but let it go. What was the point in arguing? Shaking his head Niall just popped in his ear buds and went back to his workout and ignored Louis as best he could.

Louis waited for Niall and couldn't help but be impressed, and concerned, for the boy the longer he watched. Niall went for a run on the treadmill then did pushups, sit-ups, chin-ups, lifted weights and about five other things before he finished. By the time he was done Louis fully expected the boy to drop on the floor but instead Niall just jumped up and started walking back to the room.

Louis was grateful he'd showered down at the gym area while Niall had finished his workout because he never would have had time had he waited. As it was he barely had time to change into proper clothes for the interview before they were all whisked away. He frowned as he felt his stomach growl – there hadn't been time for breakfast. Still he was following Niall thus he would eat when Niall ate, only Niall hadn't eaten yet.

The interview went well and the meet and greet flew by however Louis' hunger only grew. He was so grateful when they arrived at the venue because he was fully expecting to get lunch only Niall didn't head for the food area. Groaning silently Louis altered his direction and started following the blonde boy once again.

Niall looked behind him when he heard footsteps and was surprised to see Louis, was that man ever going to leave him alone? "What are you doing?"

"Following you" Louis said as though it were obvious, which OK yeah it was.

"Why?"

"Fell like it"

"You don't need to follow me to this"

Well that was confusing, "What is this?"

Niall held in the urge to roll his eyes, he didn't feel like explaining himself to Louis but he also couldn't be late so he hurried along as he talked knowing that if he didn't answer Louis would stop him and make him answer, "Band practice"

"Why are you going to band practice" Louis didn't get it. None of them went to band practice why would they? It's not like any of them played a... Oh.

Niall did roll his eyes there, "Because I'm in the band for some songs" and with that he left a stunned Louis behind as he headed for the stage.

Louis felt like an idiot, of course Niall would have to go to band practice how else would he know the timings of his songs? Shaking his head Louis slouched down in a chair and waited for Niall because he was still following Niall. The catch was, this was the time that all the others got to eat lunch but Niall had to be at practice and if Louis remembered correctly band practiced usually fell during one of their meals. How many meals did Niall skip because of this? Why did he never say anything?

After band practice it was time for sound check and Louis just didn't get it. How was Niall still going? Louis was starving! He felt as though he would faint from hunger by the time sound check was done. How was Niall still going? This can't have been the first time the boy had been as busy as this.

"Hey you want to hang out and watch final destination?" Harry asked as they were all heading off of the stage.

Louis was all for that so long as it involved food. Really he was all for anything so long as food was involved. Still though this was follow Niall day so it wasn't up to him.

Niall was definitely not up for watching a horror movie so he shook his head, politely declining. Now would be a good a time as any for a cooking lesson. And by the looks of Louis he might actually get to be alone for the first time all day. Seriously what was going on with the man? Why had he been following Niall around all day? Niall couldn't help but wonder if he'd done something wrong. "Nah, I wanna go shower"

"Alright then," Liam dismissed, "Louis?"

Louis held back a sigh at Niall's answer but hoped that it would lead to food soon, "No sorry mate"

"What! Why not?" Harry complained. Louis hadn't been hanging out with them all day.

"Just busy" Louis said vaguely as he followed Niall out of the room.

"What is up with you?" Niall asked the second they were alone. I mean really this was just so unlike Louis.

Louis just shrugged and gave his best stage smile, "Just wanna come along with you"

Niall sighed but let it alone, it didn't matter, "Whatever"

Louis followed Niall down the halls and noted that they were not actually going to the showers, which was fine, they weren't that bad off yet, after the concert would be an entirely different matter. When he saw that they were headed towards the food he got excited, until they walked right past the door. "Where are we going?"

"To the kitchen"

"Why?"

Niall turned to face Louis. He wasn't trying to be rude and he really wanted Louis to like him but he was busy. He'd missed all three meals today and he wasn't dumb enough to go looking for food now since it wasn't a proper mealtime and the others would just call him a pig for eating. He still had his cooking lessons to take care of and he was becoming tired of all these questions. What did it matter? "Either follow me or let me alone but stop with the questions yeah?"

Louis bit back the response that was dancing on the tip of his tongue; he could lay into Niall tomorrow, "Yeah alright. To the kitchens"

Niall sighed but let it alone. He'd been hoping Louis would just get the hint. Still, it's not as though the kitchen staff would mind an extra student, they never minded him.

It turns out that while the kitchen staff is unbelievably wonderful and patient and willing to teach Niall anything, they're not the same when it comes to someone who can't even make toast without burning it – every time. For the first time in over four years Niall was asked to leave the kitchen. Well, there went his cooking lessons and it was all Louis fault.

"I'm sorry about that" Louis said again.

"It's fine" Niall sighed, "You need to get cleaned up though, can't go on stage covered in flour and cinnamon" and really, how did Louis even get into those things? They were making fried rice – flour and cinnamon aren't on the ingredient list!

Louis looked down at himself and chuckled, "Yeah, guess I should. See you at the concert then?"

"Yes" Niall blurted out before turning and practically bolting away. He needed some time to himself NOW!

Louis sighed as he watched Niall head out and then started moving towards the showers grateful that this venue had some close by. Still he wished he had time to eat but the cooking staff had already cleared the food tables.

By the end of the concert Louis felt as though he would pass out if he didn't eat something – anything. Really anything liver and onions would be a welcome sight just so long as it was edible. How did Niall do this? How was the boy still standing? Because not only was Niall up and alert as though everything were fine but he looked as though he still had energy to burn. Shaking his head Louis just gathered his things, made a quick call to room service because no matter what he said he was not going to bed on an empty stomach and neither was Niall screw waiting until the morning to talk to the boy, and then headed in to shower.

Niall watched Louis go and couldn't help but chuckle at the amount of food the man had ordered, no way was he going to be able to eat all that. Oh well, didn't matter. He gathered his things and then sat patiently on his bed waiting for Louis to come out of the bathroom so that he could shower. Maybe he could take a hot shower? But no, what if all the hot water on the floor was together in one heater, he could screw with Harry's hot water and that wouldn't be good. No a cold shower it was.

Louis came out of the bathroom just as the food arrived and he thanked the waiter profusely, and possibly over tipped but hey he was starving! And he wasn't the one who was none stop. Niall had worked out for three hours where as Louis only worked out for one – and Niall's workout after Mark left was ten times worse than the one Mark put them through. Niall was the one who had to be on stage playing during band practice while Louis just sat there and yet Louis was the one who looked dead to the world by the end of it. Why was Niall not desperate for food?

Louis shoveled down his food in record time and actually finished in under ten minutes – though he only knew this because that was Niall's average shower length and the lad hadn't come out yet. Of course just as Louis was thinking this the bathroom door opened. Louis watched as Niall shoved his clothes into his bag and buried himself under his covers.

"I have food here" Louis called.

"I hope you enjoy it" Niall replied. Why the hell was Louis telling him this? He wasn't blind nor had he lost his sense of smell, he knew there was food.

"I have enjoyed it now it's your turn" Louis didn't get it, how was this confusing?

Niall turned over and looked at Louis while he tried to keep his teeth from chattering, seriously it was the middle of winter and he was taking cold showers. "I'm fine"

"You haven't eaten all day"

"Not hungry"

Well that was the last of it. Louis was done waiting to tell Niall off about how he was doing things. Really the lad wasn't being healthy about things. Louis stood up and stalked over to the bed and yanked the blankets off the boy, only then did he realize that Niall was shivering. Curiously Louis put a hand to Niall's exposed arm and gasped, "You're freezing!"

"And?" Niall asked confused as he tried to get his covers back.

"Why are you so cold?"

"I just took a shower"

Louis didn't get it, "Showers are warm Niall, unless you took a cold one?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Why would you take a cold shower in the middle of winter?!"

"Because"

Louis was just utterly confused. This day had left him with so many answers and yet so many questions but most of all he was concerned. "Go take another shower"

"I'm already clean"

"Go take a warm shower" Louis ordered.

"No" Niall spit back. No way was he taking a warm shower; that was suicide.

Louis'd had it. He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stand how Niall was living. Why was Niall doing this to himself? He didn't get it. He was absolutely fried from today and he probably wasn't thinking straight but he just couldn't stop himself and if he were to be honest he really didn't want to. Leaning down he picked Niall up and carried him to the bathroom.

"What are you doing?!" Niall yelped, "Put me down!"

"You're getting a bath" was all Louis said. Despite Niall's protests and struggles Louis managed to run a warm bath and strip Niall of his clothes gasping when he saw how truly thin the boy was. Did Niall ever eat? Louis doubted it. Regardless Louis placed a struggling Niall in the tub and started to wash his hair.

"I'm already clean" Niall spit out and he tried to slip out from under Louis' ministrations. This was utterly humiliating, Louis was supposed to be his friend and yet he was bathing him like a toddler! And no matter how hard Niall fought – because he fought, hard – he couldn't get away. The only good thing that came from this bath was that he was warmed up, being cold sucked.

Niall had pretty much given up on fighting Louis until he felt a wash clothe start reaching farther down than it should have. "Get away from me!" he demanded.

Louis sighed but handed the cloth over, he understood, "Wash thoroughly" he instructed before letting go.

Niall did as asked while trying to hide himself from Louis the best he could. Once he was done Louis took the cloth and drained the tub before lifting him out and into a big fluffy towel. Niall squirmed as Luis dried him off not liking it one bit but it was a long day and he was exhausted. In all honestly Niall had very little energy left in him and he wasn't sure how he was going to make himself stay up that night so he didn't have a nightmare.

Louis carried Niall back out and placed the lad back on his bed while he dug around for some warm clothes to change the boy into. Niall didn't want to be dressed but he also didn't have the proper energy to fight Louis off and by the time Louis was done Niall was out cold.

Louis sighed when he noticed Niall was already asleep, guess the food would have to wait after all. He tucked Niall in and placed the trays out side of the door. "Well be talking in the morning" he promised to the silent room before turning off the lights and climbing into bed himself.


	4. Worries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it has taken so long to update but I was on vacation and the middle of the ocean isn't the place for reliable internet access. This is a shorter chapter but I will have another up in a few days, end of the week at most. Thank you for reading.

Niall doesn’t have a single memory of his mum; never actually met the woman and his dad didn’t have any pictures. Niall could smack right into her and never know who she was. He met his brother Greg a total of three times in his life, the man had gotten some scholarship to a fancy private school when Niall was only a year or so and Greg had never looked back – didn’t want to be associated with his lower class family. The first was when he was four and he’d come home for summer holiday – that lasted all of three days before Greg ran back to school as fast as he could. The next was when he was thirteen at Greg’s graduation from school. The last time Niall had ever seen Greg was ten days after the graduation; Greg had come by the shack to say goodbye to their father, he’d not even looked at Niall. Niall’s father was the only person who’d stuck around although Niall was fairly certain that had more to do with having no where else to go and no desire to do anything but smoke and drink with the occasional bit of drugs mixed in.

That was Niall’s family, the only one he’d ever known. A mother who abandoned him before he was a month old, a brother who’d left not long after and a father who was too drunk to realize that there was someone else in the house. No one cared if Niall went to school or if he had food to eat or clothes to wear, no one cared about Niall at all. Still though, Niall managed – it was his one skill, surviving.

When Niall was really little, four or five, his father used to actually get up and go somewhere other than to the local pub or liquor store. The man would get up most mornings and head out and when he came home drunk he also tended to have a small bit of money in his pockets. Niall learned quickly that if he wanted to have food to eat or a shirt to wear then he would have to wait for his father to pass out and then lift a few dollars out of the man’s pocket. It had taken a while for Niall to master this task for while his father would never wake up if Niall wasn’t careful enough he would jostle the man’s clothing and be backhanded. Niall’s father never knew what he was doing, the man was either unconscious or completely out of it the entire time, and Niall was fairly certain that his father would never hit him if he were sober but still. It didn’t take too long before Niall was a master at picking pockets.

When Niall was about five and a half his father stopped getting up most mornings, then he stopped getting up more than one morning a week, pretty soon he didn’t get up at all. It didn’t take long after that for the money to dry up. With his father no longer bringing in an income Niall had no way of getting a bit of money for the things he needed so he had to find a different way. At first Niall stuck to the skill he knew – picking pockets. He would wash his best clothes and then walk the four miles to the nicer part of town where he would spend the afternoon in a park ‘accidentally’ running into people or tripping ladies with fancy purses. For a while his plan worked.

By the time Niall was seven he was gaining a decent bit of attention. While he’d always been small for his age he could no longer pass as someone young enough to not be in school yet. He had been walking to through the park and had come across a group of richer children who were ditching. He knew one of the boys in the group, the kid lived just a few doors down the hall from Niall’s apartment (if that’s what one could call a line of shacks with wooden doors). Niall had been about to go over to them to see if the other boy would like to walk home with him – safety in numbers and all – when a couple of cops had grabbed the boys. Niall had dived into the nearby bushes and hid; a rule of the streets, if a cop shows it’s every man for themselves. Niall had watched as the cops had grabbed the boys and waited called their parents. About half an hour later said parents started showing up until the only person left was the boy he knew. That boy’s parents never showed and after another hour the cops took the boy to their car – Niall never saw that boy again. As Niall had been walking out of the park that evening he’d been stopped by some of the older boys whom the cops had grabbed. Niall limped home that night bruised and bleeding and he’d never gone back to that park. It was safer in his own neighborhood – he didn’t stand out as badly.

The catch with staying in his neighborhood was that he had to find a new source of income. It wasn’t safe to steal from those in this area not to mention that they were just as poor as he was so there was no point. With his one and only source of income gone Niall had to come up with another way to pay the rent and utilities. Also he had to make enough to support his father’s habits. Niall wasn’t stupid, he’d learned enough to know that if his father even left he would be put into foster care and that was a place he did not want to go. He’d heard stories from kids who’d been put in temporary foster care while their parents were in jail or rehab and they were never pleasant. As bad as things were now they would only get worse if he was taken away. Niall’s father however didn’t seem to care if Niall was taken away or not. The one time that Niall had barely made enough to pay the bills with only two dollars extra he had taken that money to buy himself a loaf of bread. His father had taken off. Niall never did learn where his father had gone off but his biggest fear was that the man wouldn’t come back. Thankfully his father had shown up two weeks later with a black eye and a beer in his hand. Niall had never made the mistake of feeding himself over supporting his father again.

Over the years the price of smokes and liquor had gone up. Niall had managed to find a place to sell to cartons of smokes and five bottles of scorch a week to a minor but it cost a bit more and he still had to leave enough to get his father the weekly hit of coke. After he took care of his father he had to make sure that the rent was paid followed by the water and then the electric and gas. Whatever was left after all the required bills he would use what little he had left (if he had any) to get some food and possibly even clothes.

When Niall stopped going to the park to steal he had to find another way to get money so he went to the one person he knew would have some way, though it wouldn’t come cheap. Sure enough the man Niall went to had an under the table job or two Niall could take though the man wanted ten percent of what Niall made. In the end Niall never was able to pay the man the full amount he asked for so the man would just take it out of Niall’s flesh each week and Niall ate less than he used to. Still he stayed out of the system and alive – what more could he possibly ask for?

Niall worked himself to the bone for eight years. From midnight to five in the evening he would work. He went to the market and stocked shelves from midnight to five thirty at which time he would have half an hour to get to the pub three blocks over where he worked from six in the morning until noon from there he would then spend the next five hours cleaning houses up and down the street over.

When Niall was fifteen he came home from work one evening to find his father out cold on the table. At first he’d just thought the man had drunk too much but when he went to move his father to the bed the man was cold. Niall had checked for a pulse and jerked back when there was none. His father had drunk himself to death. Shaking in fear Niall knew that once the authorities found out he’d be shipped off to a home and he couldn’t risk that. Doing the only thing he could Niall gathered what little he had and ran as far and as fast as he could. He used his saving to buy a bus ticket as far away as possible and ended up in Dublin and a year later forged his father’s signature and auditioned for the x-factor.

When Niall made it and one direction started gaining popularity he thought that everything would be good now, that he’d finally be safe. At first his dreams had come true, the boys loved him and cared for him. Sadly his dreams lasted a total of four months before everything went to pot. Niall tried though, to make things better, and after five years he thought he’d succeeded until Louis started shadowing him. Now Niall didn’t know what to make of things. One of his biggest fears was that he would be kicked out. Zayn had left so Niall’s place was no longer guaranteed.

Niall had been trying to follow the rules. Cater to the boys, don’t eat unless it’s a proper meal time – which it almost never was, don’t use the hot water, don’t get fat and on top of all of that Niall made it to everything he was required to do for management. Why was Louis suddenly trying to screw with all that? Did he want Niall out? Was he trying to make the other boys mad at him? Niall really wished he knew.

Louis was stirred from his sleep by the sound of whimpering. Curiously he turned over and saw that Niall was thrashing around in his sleep. Immediately Louis was up and had Niall wrapped in his arms. It didn’t take long for Niall to jerk awake only unlike he had been doing Niall didn’t just fall back into Louis and go to sleep. This time Niall bolted away from Louis and curled up in the far corner.

Confused Louis made his way slowly over to the shaking boy, “Niall?”

Niall looked up at Louis hesitantly, “Sorry I woke you”

“It’s fine” Louis said as he moved closer still. What was up with Niall?

Niall shook his head and tried to move away from Louis, as the man kept moving closer. “It won’t happen again”

Louis didn’t know what to say to that. What was going on with Niall? Every other time that Louis had awoken Niall from a nightmare the boy had curled into him almost begging for comfort but now he was hiding. What had changed so drastically in just one night? Sure Louis had shadowed Niall yesterday and yes he had forced the boy to take a bath but those weren’t valid reasons for Niall to avoid him now.

“Let’s just head back to bed, yeah?” Louis offered holding his hand out to Niall, “we can talk more in the morning”

Niall stared at Louis’ hand for a moment, it was tempting, he really liked getting to sleep but he couldn’t. He wasn’t sure what it was that Louis was up to and until he knew Niall wouldn’t go with him. Instead Niall buried his head in his arms which were crossed over his knees.

Louis sighed but just pulled on Niall’s arms and yanked the boy up. His original a plan was to drag Niall back to bed and then lay down with him until he was asleep. It seemed as though Niall didn’t like his plan however since he pulled back on Louis with everything he had.

“Niall, it’s late and we need to sleep” Louis said as he tried to pull Niall towards the bed.

“I’m good”

Louis just shook his head. What was with Niall? Alright, he’d asked that at least three times now but that didn’t make it any less relevant a question. Right now though wasn’t the time to have a long and drawn out conversation, now was the time for sleep. He tried one last time to drag Niall back to the bed before just giving up and lifting Niall under the boy’s arms and carrying him to the bed.

“Put me down” Niall demanded as he thrashed around in Louis’ arms.

Louis struggled to keep hold of Niall but managed to get the boy all the way to the bed, “There” he sighed as he dropped the kid on the bed, “You’re down. Now it’s time to sleep.”

“I’m not tired” Niall grit out.

Louis ignored the boy as he climbed into the bed and curled his arms around Niall and pulled the boy close. Niall thrashed and kicked trying to get out but to no success. Louis just held Niall tight, after a couple of minutes without the boy calming down Louis started humming a soft lullaby. Eventually Niall’s fighting stopped and the boy fell into a peaceful sleep.

Once Niall was out Louis found that he couldn’t get back to sleep. Questions were running around his brain and they weren’t letting him alone. Why had Niall had a nightmare? Niall never had nightmares two nights in a row with him, what made tonight special? Liam and Harry did say that Niall always had nightmares every night with them so what was different? Was it that Niall just felt safe with him? Was it that Niall didn’t sleep every night? Louis knew that Niall never went to the bunks on the bus, Louis wasn’t even sure that the boy ever made it upstairs. In truth Louis didn’t ever remember Niall sleeping anywhere but the hotels. Was it possible that Niall just didn’t sleep every night they roomed together? Louis would have to keep a closer eye on Niall’s sleeping habits from now on.

Another thing that worried Liam was Niall’s eating habits. Yesterday Niall didn’t eat a thing and Louis knew that Niall hadn’t eaten supper the night before because he’d vanished – now that he was thinking of it Niall probably went off to band practice. Louis didn’t remember Niall sitting with them at lunch or breakfast on the bus yesterday. It did occur to him that it was probably Niall who had prepared and cleaned up the meals however considering the cooking lessons that Louis, may have, botched the other day – so sue him he’s a bad cook. So Louis would have to keep an eye on Niall’s food intake as well.

Niall’s insistence to take a cold shower confused Louis. Why would Niall think taking a cold shower was a good idea? Especially in the middle of winter? Louis just didn’t get it. Sighing he just added that to the list of things he’d have to keep an eye on, hopefully tomorrow Niall would just take a warm shower, he didn’t want to embarrass the boy more than he absolutely had to.

The last two things on Louis’ current list of worries were the long workout sessions that Niall did which, given his current weight and the vigorousness of the workouts, weren’t healthy. Those would have to be reduced down to the two hours a week they were supposed to be. Lastly was the band practice. None of the other boys had to participate in band practice, it was the one thing Niall had to do that no one else did. Now it’s not that Louis cared about Niall participating in band practice it was that Niall had to miss meals in order to participate. It wasn’t fair that all band practices occurred while the boys were eating while everyone in the band had already been given time to eat. Niall missed enough meals as it was. With that thought in mind Louis was also curious as to why Niall didn’t just grab a quick bite after band practice or some other time. Why not order room service at the very least? Louis just didn’t get it.

With all of this put together Louis had hoped that he could get some sleep but in truth nothing had been resolved and his brain was still going. Sighing Louis got up and looked around the room for something to do, that’s when his eyes landed on Niall’s suitcase. They were here for a full week, Niall should have unpacked but he didn’t. Oh well, it would give Louis something to do.

It didn’t take long for Louis to have all the clothes packed away but as he entered the bottom of the suitcase he came across something he’d never expected to find. Niall had an inhaler. Since when did Niall need an inhaler? Did he have asthma? Why hadn’t he said anything? Just to make sure he wasn’t jumping to conclusions Louis checked the prescription on the side of the inhaler. It was indeed Niall’s only it had expired two weeks ago. Louis just shook his head; it was one more thing to talk to Niall about. His list was never going to shorten.


	5. Lunch

Louis started when he heard Niall’s alarm go off, he’d forgotten about that. Groaning he turned over to look at the time, it was four in the morning. Sighing he closed his eyes for just ten seconds, he’d finally laid down not even half an hour ago. As he heard a door click he opened his eyes thinking that it was time to get up, he should probably stop Niall from changing since the boy wasn’t going to be working out this morning. Louis rolled over and got up out of bed, heading for the bathroom door. Only catch is when Louis got to the bathroom he found the door wide open.

Louis did a quick scan of the room only to see no sign of Niall, what he did see though was that he had not shut his eyes for ten seconds he’d shut them for ten minutes! Bolting for the door Louis made it into the hallway just in time to see the stairwell door click shut. Shaking his head in disbelief and agitation Louis chased after Niall.

Niall jumped when he heard the stairwell door bang open. Turning around he groaned as he saw Louis running down the stairs towards him. “What now?”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Louis demanded as he made it to the landing Niall was on.

Niall was tired, annoyed and so many other things but mostly he was confused, “I’m going to the gym like I do every morning” and then, just to make himself clear, “You’re not coming”

Louis snorted at that, “Believe me I have no intentions of submitting myself to another three hour torture session that you call a workout”

Niall laughed there, he couldn’t help it, “That’s not a torture session, trust me”

That response did nothing to appease Louis, just made him more determined actually, “It doesn’t matter. I’m not doing it again and neither are you”

“I’m not sure what you’re on about but since I know that you don’t have the right to control what I do I’m going to be leaving now and I’ll see you later” and with that Niall turned and started heading down the stairs, he didn’t even make it one step.

Louis grabbed Niall’s lower arm and started dragging the boy up the stairs, “This isn’t a debate Niall. Your ‘workouts’ are unhealthy and they’re going to stop”

Niall just couldn’t believe it! Where did Louis come off telling him what he could and could not do with his time? What had caused this sudden power trip? “Piss off”

Louis gave up trying to drag Niall up the stairs. He turned the boy to the side, gave him a hard swat to his bum and then picked a stunned Niall up and carried him back to the room.

Niall was floored. Louis had smacked him! Louis had carried him back to the hotel room! What the hell was going on? Why was this happening? And most importantly why was he just staying still and taking it?

With that last thought in mind Niall came out of his shock and started fighting, hard. “Let me go”

Louis once again dropped Niall on the bed, “You need to stop fighting me”

Niall snorted, “You need to get off this power trip” he said as he stood back up and started heading towards the door fully intent on going to the gym for his workout.

“Arrgh” Niall yelled as Louis picked him up, again! “PUT ME DOWN!”

“Stop thrashing around” Louis ordered as he struggled to keep ahold of the flailing boy.

“LET ME GO AND LEAVE ME ALONE!” Niall yelled as he started hitting and kicking any part of Louis he could reach. Screw trying to get Louis to like him, it wasn’t important at this point he’d figure out another way to get some sleep. He didn’t need Louis to accept him he could just work on the others and Louis could go back to ignoring him.

Louis just about lost ahold of Niall when the boy landed a strong jab to his stomach, he was really trying to keep his temper but Niall wasn’t making it easy. The last straw came when Niall attempted to bite him. “That’s it”

Niall wasn’t sure to make of Louis’ last statement and he wasn’t given time for a rebuttal. Before he even knew what was happening Niall found himself face down across Louis’ knees. “What the hell are you doing!”

Louis just shook his head. He was tired, he was in pain and he just wanted what was best for Niall however the boy couldn’t just hit and kick and bite whenever and whoever he wanted. Completely at a loss for things to do – some of that he would later blame on sleep deprivation – Louis did the first thing that came to his mind.

Niall couldn’t believe that Louis was doing this. He refused to believe it. Niall kept himself in utter denial. He was able to succeed with is plan… up until the first smack fell.

“Stop!” Niall demanded, “You have no right to do this”

Louis ignored Niall and continued to assault the boy’s backside.

Niall struggled for a while but quickly ran out of energy. In all his life Niall couldn’t remember a time when he felt more embarrassed than this. Niall had been abandoned and beaten and never once had he felt this embarrassed or this close to tears. Niall hadn’t cried since he was three and a half, it had been the first time he had failed to get cash out of his father’s pocket and the man had backhanded him with enough force to send his small frame across the room. Niall hadn’t cried in almost eighteen years and yet here he was with tears streaming down his face over a stupid spanking.

At around thirty swats Louis finally felt Niall’s body relax. “You are not allowed to kick people.” Swat, “You are not allowed to hit people” Swat, “You most definitely not allowed to bite people” and with that Louis landed one final swat.

As soon as he was done he lifted Niall up and sat the boy on his lap, “It’s alright, you’re ok. You took that really well” Louis praised the sobbing boy on his lap.

Niall couldn’t stop crying. He was confused, in pain, exhausted, embarrassed and he just couldn’t stop crying. Niall wasn’t sure why he was crying so much; it was as though once the first tear fell the entire dam broke.

Louis was starting to grow concerned, he didn’t think he’d spanked Niall that hard but the boy had been crying steadily for the past thirty minutes. He was just about to pull the boy up and check on him when he felt Niall grow heavy in his arms. Looking down Louis sighed in relief when he saw Niall sleeping peacefully. Carefully, so as not to wake him, Louis laid Niall in bed and tucked him in before climbing back into bed himself. Well at least Niall wouldn’t be working out this morning.

Louis’ phone went off a little before eleven, he grabbed it quickly hoping to avoid waking the sleeping Niall, this was the first time Louis had seen Niall sleep alone without having a nightmare. Looking at his phone he noted Liam had texted hi.

Hey, want to hang out with me and Harry?

Louis sighed, while yes he would love to hang out with his friends he needed to make sure Niall was alright, and that the boy ate. With a slight bit of remorse Louis texted back, ‘sorry can’t’ and then put his phone up. A few seconds later Liam said that he was heading out with Harry and that they’d be back later and that was the end of it.

After he put his phone back down Louis took note of the time and figured it might be good to order lunch. By his count Niall hadn’t eaten in about two and a half days and Louis wasn’t about to let that streak continue. Also, he couldn’t just let Niall sleep the day away or the boy would be up all night.

With a plan made Louis ordered room service and then sat down to wait for it to arrive, he’d wake Niall then, let the boy sleep as much as he could. As Louis waited he scrolled through his phone looking at twitter, and their upcoming schedule. As he flipped through his texts to make sure he hadn’t missed one Louis realized that he’d never heard Niall’s phone go off. Strange, Liam and Harry had invited him out why not Niall? Was Niall’s phone just on vibrate? Louis didn’t think so, Niall’s alarm was his phone and that had gone off. But why wouldn’t Liam and Harry invite Niall? Surely they’d meant to, hadn’t they? Louis shook his head. As hard as he thought he couldn’t actually remember a time when Liam, Harry or even he had invited Niall to go out with them somewhere. In fact other than these last two and a half months Louis couldn’t recall the last time they invited Niall to do … anything. Could that be possible though? Had they never invited Niall to hang out before Zayn left? No. That was crazy, wasn’t it?

Louis was broken from his thoughts by the sound of a text message coming in. He checked his phone but there was nothing there, curious he looked at Niall’s phone – which yes he’d confiscated to see if Liam or Harry had texted he just didn’t know Niall’s password so he couldn’t check. When Louis pressed the center button on the phone it showed that Niall had received a text from Josh letting him know that band practice was in half an hour, after the crew ate lunch. Louis sighed; he’d forgotten that while they’d all been given the next three days off the crew hadn’t, he quickly shot a text to Josh saying that Niall wasn’t going to be making it to practice today. He couldn’t help but wonder how many days off poor Niall actually got, based on this new information Louis wouldn’t guess many. Funny thing was, when the band had days off it was typical for the boys to have a day full of interviews or photo-shoots, Niall really never got a break. Why had the boy never said anything? Before Louis could delve too far into his ponderings room service arrived.

Niall groaned and rolled over when the smell of food hit his nose, he was starving! Still, if he was smelling food then that meant it was lunch time and unfortunately for him lunch time meant band practice. Oh well, he had nothing he had to do during dinnertime so he could eat then. Yes, he would get to eat dinner. Niall was choosing to ignore the fact that it would be the first time he’d eaten in three days, he’d done it before and he would undoubtedly have to do it again.

Sighing and letting go of the last remnants of the most relaxing sleep he’d had in… ever, Niall rolled onto his back. That proved to be a mistake however because the second his backside touched the bed he felt a dull pain and immediately rolled back over onto his side. The events of the morning came rushing back to his sleep addled brain and Niall’s eyes flew open and he glared at Louis.

“You’ve got some serious control issues you know that?”

Oh goodie, Niall was up, “Lunch is here” Louis said as he set out the meals.

Niall’s eyes narrowed, if that was even possible, but he choose not to comment. Instead Niall got up and started searching for his shoes, he couldn’t find them. Refusing to ask Louis Niall just set out to tear the room apart.

Louis waited until he was finished setting the plates and drinks out before collecting Niall, he’d wanted to give the boy the chance to come to the table on is own. Louis should have known Niall wouldn’t come eat, he had shown no interest in food before why would that change now? Didn’t matter, this wasn’t something Niall had a choice on, not anymore. “Let’s eat”

Niall glanced at Louis before resuming his search for his shoes, honestly where could they be?

Louis just sighed and walked over to the boy, picking him up. Instantly Niall started thrashing around.

“LET GO OF ME!”

“It’s lunch time”

“PUT ME DOWN!”

Louis ignored Niall’s yelling however once the boy started hitting out Louis landed five successive swats to the lad’s backside and instantly Niall froze.

Niall felt humiliated, he was not a fan of Louis’ new way of doing things. “That was uncalled for” he grit out.

Louis plopped Niall in a chair, ignoring the small hiss as Niall’s backside touched the padded seat, and sat down in his own chair right next to Niall, “I told you this morning that I don’t tolerate hitting, kicking or biting”

Niall ignored this and made to stand up only to have Louis push him right back down. “WILL YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Louis turned both chairs so that they were facing and then placed his hands on the arms of Niall’s chair effectively trapping the boy in. “You need to eat” and with that Louis took a forkful of mashed potatoes and put it up to Niall’s mouth.

Niall clamped his mouth shut and turned his face to the side, “Get away from me” he grit out.

Louis sighed and took a hold of Niall’s chin forcing his face forward and towards the fork. Niall brought up his hands trying to fight Louis off and succeeded in making Louis remove his hand and in knocking over the fork.

“Alright, let’s try that again” Louis said taking a deep breath. This time the first thing he did was grab a hold of Niall’s nose, forcing the boy to open his mouth before bringing up a forkful of potatoes. Only catch is he hadn’t expected Niall to merely open his lips. The kid was breathing through his teeth while managing to keep them clamped. “Dammit Niall!”

Niall smirked and finally yanked himself out of Louis’ hold.

Louis was desperate, “Why won’t you just eat? I know you’re hungry. I can hear your stomach growling”

Niall sunk in his chair, he wasn’t trying to be difficult with Louis he just couldn’t eat right now, “I have to go” he said in way of explanation as he made to get out of the chair he was currently trapped in.

Louis just shook his head, of course Niall would already know about band practice he had hoped that the boy hadn’t, “Band practice is cancelled”

“No it’s not” Niall objected.

“You got a text from Josh while you were sleeping” not a complete lie, Josh had texted.

Niall narrowed his eyes, “Let me see”

Louis hesitated, on one hand the text did not say practice was cancelled on the other he wanted to read Niall’s other texts. “Alright” he gave in eventually.

Niall unlocked his phone and pulled up his texts, “It does not say practice is cancelled!” he said indignantly holding the phone up for Louis to see. A small part of him unrealistically hoped that Louis would realize the mistake and let him go. He should have known that wouldn’t have been the case.

Louis smirked to himself at his victory as he took the phone from Niall and glanced at it before setting it to the side, “no it doesn’t, oh well” he said as he brought the fork up to Niall’s mouth once again.

Niall glared at Louis, “I have to go” he said turning his head away.

“You don’t” Louis said simply as he moved the fork to follow Niall’s mouth.

“I do now get away from me” Niall demanded as he tried to shove Louis away.

“I’ve already told Josh you weren’t coming” Louis said simply as he pulled Niall back towards him and then hooked his feet to the feet of Niall’s chair keeping it in place.

“You had no right to do that” Niall argued, “I have to be there”

“Niall, you’re allowed to miss one practice, it’s alright” Louis tried to appease.

“No!” Niall shouted becoming nervous, “I’m not allowed to miss one”

Louis was confused, where was this coming from. He could tell that he wouldn’t get anywhere just yet, taking a look at the clock he noted that it was going on one, “How long does band practice last?”

“An hour and a half on average”

“Well then it’s a moot point” Louis said happily.

“What?” Niall asked nervously.

“It’s over in about ten minutes” Louis said as he once again pressed the fork to Niall’s mouth once again.

“No” Niall said, “No, no, no, no, no that can’t be”

“It’s alright Niall” Louis tried, “Now come on its time to eat”

Niall couldn’t believe he’d missed band practice; he was in so much trouble. Management was going to kill him. Lost in his thoughts Niall slouched back in his chair not knowing what to do.

Louis didn’t understand what was scaring Niall so much, it was just one practice. Still Niall’s jaw had finally gone lax so taking advantage of the situation Louis popped the fork into Niall’s mouth. Much to his relief Niall just chewed and swallowed mechanically but didn’t react otherwise. Taking advantage of the situation

Louis continued to feed Niall until the plate was empty and he could breath a sigh of relief that the boy finally had some food in his stomach. Once Niall had eaten Louis took that opportunity to eat himself before cleaning up.

“Niall?” Louis questioned once he was done with everything.

Niall blinked but finally came out of his stupor, “Sorry”

“It’s fine, I was just wondering if you wanted to watch a movie or something?”

Niall’s eyes went wide; hell no he didn’t want to watch some creepy horror movie! “That’s alright I was just gonna read”

Louis was a bit stunned but reading was a relaxing activity so he was willing to let it be. “Alright” he said moving away from Niall and allowing the boy up.

Niall went to his backpack and grabbed a book at random before curling up on the couch with his back towards the rest of the room and facing the massive window. Louis just let Niall alone, he could keep an eye on the boy and still look over the boy’s phone, somehow he had a feeling that there were some answers in there.


	6. Questions

Niall read for about an hour before his mind started to wander elsewhere. He just didn’t understand what was up with Louis. At first Niall thought that Louis just wanted to tag along because he was checking to see if Niall had meet the ‘required standards’ whatever those may be. As time progressed Niall just became irritated with Louis’ presence. Being forced to take a bath was ludicrous and having Louis bath him was embarrassing and it only got worse when Louis dressed him as well. The spanking this morning had been the topper though; Niall had never been so humiliated. And just as an added bonus Louis had told Josh he wasn’t going to be at band practice, now Niall had to deal with whatever punishment management cooked up, most likely something to do with Bradford.

Everything Louis had been doing this past day and a half made absolutely no sense to Niall. The only thing Niall was certain of was that he wanted to stay as far away from Louis as possible. With that thought in mind Niall peeked a look over the back of the couch to see what Louis was doing, when he saw that the man was thoroughly engaged in staring at a cellphone screen Niall smirked.

While Niall’s childhood might not have been the most ideal it definitely proved to be very educational and Niall learned many things, 99% of which aren’t exactly legal but that’s beside the point. Another benefit was that while shoes were helpful they were not required. There were times when being invisible was useful.

Louis had spent the last hour looking over all the texts in Niall’s phone. There were plenty from Josh, Sandy, Dan and Jon about band practices, meetings and music lessons. Louis hadn’t known that Niall was, or apparently had been, taking music lessons, or that Niall participated in band meetings. Why was Niall participating in the band meetings? The practices were one thing, Niall played in the band but why the meetings? That was the first question on the list entitled ‘Questions to ask Niall’.

Niall also had quite a few texts from different members of management about the basic one-direction duties as well as about band duties. It seemed as though management was rather obsessive about Niall attending everything he was supposed to be at. There were also texts from management that Louis had a hard time believing. Some of the texts were old and focused on Niall’s braces and warned about receiving bad reviews from the dentist. Other texts were newer and focused on Niall’s weight, body and image, at first Louis thought those would be about how Niall needed to gain weight and that he looked like a stick. Management was telling Niall that he was fat! Who would do that? No wonder Niall insisted on working out every morning. Another interesting thing that Louis saw was that management seemed fully aware of the fact that Niall was typically booked solid with very little time to rest, there appeared to be multiple days where Niall only had two to three hours of down time between band duties, one-direction duties, and workouts. Louis couldn’t help but wonder why Niall had never said anything and why management seemed intent on running Niall into the ground? That was two more questions on the list.

There were also multiple texts from the security team. It seemed as though there was a fifty – fifty split between setting up combat training, because Niall apparently knew how to fight wonderful! (note sarcasm): to complaining that Niall had slipped security – again. That brought up a whole new issue for Louis. Niall knew how to slip security! How the hell had the boy learned to evade an entire security team multiple times? There were twenty people assigned just to Niall alone! How does one skinny little boy manage to get away from twenty people who were hired to do nothing but watch him!? That would be the fourth question on the list. Oh how the list was getting long.

The last person that Louis noted texted Niall often was… Bradford? Why the hell would Bradford be texting Niall? Why was Bradford allowed to text Niall?

Louis remembered Bradford well and he wasn’t a fan of the man, none of the boys were. When they’d first been put together and it wasn’t sure if they would succeed or not management had hired Bradford as a ‘motivator’ to ‘encourage’ the boys to do their best. The catch was that the boys were only sent to Bradford separately and only if they’d done something that management had considered a ‘major error’. Louis had only been sent to the man once, that’s all it had taken to decide that he’d never go to that man again.

Louis had been goofing off and cussing on stage which didn’t go well with their image. He’d already received multiple warnings from management and he hadn’t listened so they sent him to Bradford. The man had Louis run through every song on their set over and over again until Louis’ voice was so used it could no longer be heard. It was three days before he could speak again and by the end of it Louis had been assured that Bradford had been fired and none of the boys would ever have to deal with the man again.

Looking over the texts between Bradford and Niall it appeared that Louis had been lied to. While none of the other boys had ever had to deal with the man again Niall clearly had, approximately once a month or more if Louis was correct. It angered him to see that the last time Niall had an appointment with Bradford was two weeks ago. Thinking back Louis could remember how Niall had been a little off the next day, Louis had thought it curious that Niall hadn’t spoken much while they were all cooped up on the bus but he hadn’t asked. He regretted not asking now. Still, why was Niall meeting with Bradford? Why hadn’t Niall said anything? Two more questions for his list.

After Louis finished going through all the texts he noted two things. One, Niall received absolutely no texts or calls from his family, not one person. Two, Niall received zero texts from Louis, Harry, Liam or Zayn. Niall had kept every text for the past five years, ever since he’d gotten the phone and yet there wasn’t one pleasant conversation just people telling Niall where he needed to be when or telling Niall how worthless he was. Louis felt guilty, he held a good deal of blame here. Why had he never noticed? That was a question for himself not Niall. What was the seventh question on the list was, why did Niall not communicate with his family?

Sighing Louis clicked off Niall’s phone and closed his eyes. He had taken in a lot of information in a short amount of time and his head was spinning. Not only that but his list of questions wasn’t complete at seven. More and more questions kept pouring into his mind. Why won’t Niall take a warm shower? Why won’t Niall eat? Why hasn’t Niall said anything over the years? How had the boys forgotten about Niall? And, because it just popped into his head, why hadn’t Niall said anything about having asthma? Why hadn’t Niall gotten a new inhaler once his old one expired?

With that last thought in mind Louis picked up his own phone and made an appointment with his own doctor. He’d call Niall’s doctor but he didn’t know who the man was. Naturally Louis’ doctor, Hernandez, wouldn’t give Niall a prescription without actually having assessed the boy to be sure he was receiving the proper medication. Louis had no issues with this, he wanted to have Niall’s weight looked at as it was, this would be a perfect cover. With his plan in mind Louis made an appointment for nine the following morning.

Smiling to himself for finding the solution to at least one issue Louis put his phone away and turned to face Niall, the boy needed to eat, shower and sleep. When he looked to the couch where Niall had previously been laying he didn’t see the blond tuft of hair he’d expected. Curious Louis made his way to the couch and looked over the back, there was no Niall. In fact, there was no Niall anywhere in the room. “Shit”

Niall wasn’t sure where to go when he left the hotel room. He couldn’t go to the gym because Liam had an appointment there in half an hour with the trainer. He’d already missed band practice so he couldn’t go anywhere the band members were. He spent a few minutes debating the issue before deciding to head out to the venue and see if the cooking staff would be willing to give him a lesson if Louis was at least fifty feet from the building.

Hoping that the cooking staff will go for it Niall slipped out of the building and down to the venue being sure to stay out of public places. It’s amazing how empty alleyways tend to be in broad daylight, Niall never did understand why people stayed out of the alleys in the middle of the day and yet would willingly walk into them during the night.

Making it to the venue in under twenty minutes Niall was happy to note that the place was pretty bare of one direction staff or crew. There was some other group playing there tonight and it was that groups people who were rushing around everywhere. Smirking to himself Niall pulled his hat farther down the front of his face and took a direct route to the kitchen to beg the wonderful staff to give him a lesson. Hopefully it would work.

Louis had spit out every curse word he knew in four different languages (the perks of being a world traveler, he now knows every curse word in multiple languages). It had taken him a full hour to learn that Niall was no longer anywhere in the hotel – that was only after having had the security search the entire building. Much to Louis’ annoyance the members of the security team who were assigned to Niall specifically were rather… unconcerned about the issue. What proved even more annoying was that no one on the entire security staff seemed to consider this event as nothing more than a nuisance, a regular inconvenience. Really, Louis couldn’t help but wonder exactly how often Niall felt it necessary to sneak off. When Louis got his hands on Niall he would be one very sorry little boy, and under constant supervision until Louis said otherwise.

After deducing that Niall was no longer in the hotel it took a following two hours to actually locate the boy and then that was only because he came back, through the staff entrance. Louis couldn’t help but wonder where Niall got a key to the staff entrance door.

As soon as Louis learned that Niall was back he made his way down to the staff entrance to meet him, he wasn’t there. “Where is he this time?” Louis sighed.

The security team looked a little uneasy, it seemed as though these people weren’t used to having to answer to anyone about Niall’s whereabouts, that had made for an even more irritating few hours. “We’re not certain. We haven’t actually seen him”

“Then how do you know he’s back?” Louis exclaimed in annoyance, “How do you know he came in through the staff entrance?”

“Well” another member hesitated, “we were showing his picture around and one of the staff said he saw Niall come in approximately fifteen minutes ago”

It took all of Louis’ self control not to start cursing again. These people seemed so amazing at their jobs every other time Louis had dealt with them but one question as to Niall’s whereabouts and they were the worst security team of all time. How could one scrawny kid bring an entire security force of over one hundred to their knees? Foregoing an answer Louis just turned and stalked off. It was unbelievable how crazy all this seemed.

The first place Louis checked was the hotel room he and Niall shared, no dice. Sighing in realization and annoyance Louis stalked off to the workout room. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”


	7. A Text

Niall jumped at the sound of Louis screaming, “Are you insane?” he questioned as he set down his weights and sat up, “You should know better than to startle someone whose lifting weights”

“Where the hell have you been?!” Louis exclaimed.

Niall rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored Louis and laid back down. He hadn’t been lifting weights for long, this would be his second day and he had no more than about ten pounds on there but he planned work up to more.

Louis was becoming more irritated as the day moved on. First he has to force Niall to eat then he learns disturbing information that leads to a whole list of questions, next Niall goes missing and the security staff is absolutely useless and now Niall was ignoring him. Louis was exhausted and he still needed to get Niall back to the room, talk to him, feed him, get the kid to take a shower and then put the boy to bed. This was going to be a very long night.

Not in the mood to hold an argument in the middle of a public gym Louis went over to Niall and pulled the boy up before he had a chance to start lifting weights. Also, why was Niall lifting weights? The boy was a stick, skin and bones, how did he have the muscle to lift weights? This was not a habit Louis would be letting Niall pick up.

“Put me down!” Niall demanded as he started pounding on Louis’ back.

Instantly Louis landed five painful swats to Niall’s backside before readjusting the boy into a firmer hold. “I do believe I told you that hitting was not allowed. Also I told you that you weren’t to be anywhere near the gym for the time being”

“I don’t care what you say” Niall sneered as he thrashed around however he did refrain from hitting Louis.

Louis ignored Niall and continued to walk the two of them back towards their hotel room. It had been a long day and without thinking about it Louis walked right into the elevator. He didn’t notice anything was wrong until after the doors shut and Niall stilled in his arms. At first Louis thought that it was just Niall calming down until he felt the slightest shiver, it took all of ten seconds before he remembered.

“Shh, it’s ok” Louis cooed as he started rubbing Niall’s back. He was so stupid, how could he have forgotten – again? “It’s almost over, you’re doing great.”

Niall didn’t understand it. He hated small spaces and elevators were evil but Louis was making him feel better. Louis shouldn’t be making him feel better. Being held like a toddler in the arms of someone who appeared to be trying to control him and being bounced slightly should NOT be making him feel better! Before he had the ability to process this turn of events he was being carried through the halls and into the hotel room. Groaning as he saw where they were, Niall didn’t want to be back here!

Louis ignored the groans of complaint coming from the small boy and dumped Niall on the bed. Naturally the second Niall was set down he started running for the door. Louis was quick, having purposefully placed himself between the door and the likely escapee.

“Let me go!” Niall demanded, as Louis once again held him captive.

“You are not going anywhere” Louis stated firmly tipping Niall back onto the bed.

Niall glared up at Louis but didn’t try to bolt again. Better to lure the older one into a false sense of security before attempting to go again. What better way to do that than to appear complacent – for a time.

Louis was surprised by Niall’s apparent calm. He didn’t quite know what to do with this opportunity and thought it might be a good time to get some of his questions answered. Of course just as he was trying to think of a good way to start Niall’s phone beeped.

Niall’s head jerked around searching for his phone. Eventually he spotted the item of his desire across the room on Louis’ bed. Instantly he lunged for it only to be held off by the large pain in his side.

Louis was quick to grab Niall’s phone and managed to hold the boy off. He tapped the center button; it was a text.

“Give me that!” Niall demanded lunging for his phone.

Louis held it out of reach, “Tell you what” he proposed, “I’ll give it to you when you can tell me who the text is from”

Niall hesitated. He wasn’t sure who the text was from, there were many possibilities. It could be any one from the band about him missing practice, it could be from security for having slipped out without them knowing, it could be from management because of either of the previously stated or it could be Bradford which meant that Niall was in trouble probably because of one or both of the previous items. He didn’t particularly feel like discussing any of those options with Louis. “My family most likely” he shrugged.

Louis probably would have believed that lie if it weren’t for three things. One, he knew that Niall received NO texts from his family, two, he wasn’t about to believe anything that came from Niall at the moment unless he’d already checked it for himself and three, he already knew who the text was from. “Your family?”

“Yep” Niall answered, Louis appeared to be buying it, right?

“And what might they have wanted?”

“What?”

“Why would they text? What would they say?”

“Um…” How the hell would he know? Niall hadn’t spoken to his mother… ever; he hadn’t spoken to his brother since the man’s one summer trip home and hadn’t seen the man since he stopped by the shack after having graduated high school. His father was dead for almost six years now so that man hadn’t texted. What would family say?

“When was the last time you talked to your family?” Louis asked trying to help Niall out of his miserable lie quickly.

“Well…” half lie maybe? “We don’t talk much”

“Oh?” Louis asked politely, “and why is that?”

“Just not very close” Niall tried to say casually.

“Because…” Louis pried.

“What’s it matter!?” Niall exclaimed becoming irritated. Why did Louis care?

Louis sighed, time to move on, he’d bring up Niall’s family at a later time. “It’s not from any member of your family. Try again”

Niall huffed, he didn’t like this game, “You already know who it’s from”

“Yes”

“Then why do I have to guess?”

“You don’t”

Niall smiled at that and held out his hand expectantly. Louis looked down at Niall’s hand and then back up to the boy as though confused. “Give it” Niall demanded.

“I never said I’d just give it to you” Louis said.

Really? “I want my phone!”

“And you’ll get it when you tell me who texted”

“Are you kidding me!?”

“The deal is that I will hand over the phone once you tell me who it is that texted you” Louis said.

“Arghh!!!!!” Niall screamed. “You’re a f….. control freak”

Louis put Niall’s phone in his pocket, moved to the bed, lifted Niall up and spanked him five times before setting him back down and moving away.

“What was that for?” Niall grit out as he sat down gently and hissed in pain, getting spanked sucked.

“No cussing” Louis stated simply, “Now who texted?”

Niall wanted to scream. He wanted to take Louis down and get out of there but he couldn’t. If he started screaming then he would certainly cuss and Louis would spank him again. As much as the spankings hurt they weren’t a beating and Niall could never actually do anything to hurt someone unless it was self-defense. As much as he loathed to admit it, a spanking wasn’t something that he could claim self-defense on, not even to his own self-conscious. “Um… someone from the band”

Louis let out a silent breath he’d been holding, “And why would they text?”

“Band practice” Niall said obviously.

“I already told them you weren’t going to band practice so try again”

Niall huffed, “Ahh… band meeting probably”

“And why would you need to know about a band meeting?”

“Because I go to them” Niall said as though he were talking to a small child.

“WHY do you go to them?”

Niall rolled his eyes, “I’m part of the band why wouldn’t I go to the meetings?”

“But what do you do at band meetings?” Louis just didn’t get it. What would Niall possibly do at a band meeting?

“What’s the point in this?”

“Do you want your phone?”

“You’re a control freak” Niall stated. Louis just stared him down though refusing to back down. Eventually Niall admitted defeat, “at band practice we work on the current songs for the shows”

“Yes” Louis agreed.

“Well at band meetings we work on the new songs that will be added, choreography for the guitarists and then some of the songs still being written”

“What do you mean some of the songs still being written?”

“When the songs are created they typically have either a piano part or a guitar part correct?” Niall asked.

“Yeah” Louis nodded.

“Where did you think the rest of the parts for each song come from?”

Louis paused, is that how the songs were finished, by the band? “I guess I never thought about it” he admitted.

Niall snorted, “clearly”

Louis ignored the sarcastic comment and moved on with the point of this conversation, “It wasn’t anyone in the band who texted you, try again”

Niall huffed, he didn’t like this, he didn’t want to do this but Louis was still in-between him and the door and there was no other way to get his phone back without physically hurting Louis and that just wasn’t an option. “Security?”

“Why would security need to contact you?” Louis asked simply.

“Really?” Niall asked half in sarcasm and half in bewilderment. How was this not obvious?

Louis merely shrugged and awaited Niall’s reply.

Niall glared at Louis, “Because I went missing for a few hours”

“Yes about that,” now they were getting somewhere, “How did you manage to get out of the building without security knowing about it?”

Niall shrugged, “It was easy”

“Ok but how?”

Niall just stared at Louis dumbly, how was this confusing? No one paid attention to what Niall did or where he was, no one, “How hard is it to evade people who aren’t paying attention to you?”

Ah, of course. Louis felt a little stupid here. All the time he’d spent with Niall over the years has been when they were on one direction duties so all of the boys were surrounded by fans and thus security. Louis had assumed that since he and all the other boys had security around them and watching them twenty-four seven that Niall did as well. Thinking back though Louis didn’t remember seeing a single member of Niall’s security team around the entire day that Louis had shadowed Niall unless they were doing one direction duties. Louis’ security was there but not Niall’s. How had Louis missed it before?

“So you don’t ‘escape’ per say you just what?”

“I just leave” Niall answered simply, “I stand up and walk out the door. It’s not rocket science, there’s no secret escape hatch”

“And no one pays attention?”

“Not a soul”

Louis cringed; he was part of those that never noticed Niall missing. He held some of the blame here himself after all he hadn’t noticed that Niall had left the hotel room. Sighing Louis continued, “It wasn’t anyone from security. Next guess”

Niall despised being reminded of this ‘game’ Louis was playing. There were only two other options for who could have texted him and neither were ones he wanted to admit to. Still, he shot for the best case scenario and hoped, “Possibly management”

“And why would management text just you?” Louis asked. They were narrowing down the list.

“Can’t you ever just give me a straight yes or no answer?” Niall asked annoyed.

“Whose the one that wants something here?”

If looks could kill Louis would have been six feet under, “Management probably learned that I missed band practice”

“And why would they care if you miss one band practice?” Really, Louis had missed a few rehearsals before, they all had, except maybe Niall. What did missing one band practice matter? And on their day off no less.

Niall rolled his eyes, “I missed a practice”

“Yes I understand that” Louis tried to appease a little, “my question is why would management text you after missing one practice on your day off?”

“I’m not supposed to miss ANY practices” Niall exclaimed.

Louis was starting to feel as though they were merely going around in circles here, “Why aren’t you allowed to miss any practices?”

“Because that’s the rule!”

“WHY?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” Niall yelled. Niall didn’t know. He was never told why he couldn’t have a sick day or a day off, why he had to be present at every band meeting, band practice, rehearsal, sound check, interview, signing, meet and greet, photo shoot, and all the other band duties. All Niall knew was that if he missed anything then he would have to make up that time with Bradford and he didn’t want that.

Louis took a deep breath. Maybe Niall didn’t know. No matter what, pushing this issue right now wasn’t a wise decision; he’d gotten an answer however pathetic it was. “Moving on. It was not management who texted you. Try again”

Niall was angry and… scared. If it wasn’t management, security or the band then there was only one other person it could possibly be. He needed to get that phone now.

Louis was surprised when Niall made a lunge for his phone though he had, somewhat, been expecting it. As far as Louis could tell Niall had been making his guesses from a best-case to worst-case scenario and he’d just gotten to the bottom of the list.

The second after Niall lunged Louis moved back and he’d just managed to avoid being tackled to the ground. Unfortunately for Niall that meant he ended up landing on the ground. Almost instantly however Niall was on his feet again and coming towards Louis, “Give me my phone” he demanded.

Louis merely shook his head, put the phone in his back pocket and took a hold of Niall’s shoulders to stop the boy’s progression. “You know the rules. You get the right answer and I’ll give you the phone”

“I need my phone!”

“Why?” Louis asked, “Who texted you?”

“You don’t get it” Niall said becoming panicked, “I need my phone. We’ve already been talking for too long”

“What?” Louis was confused. How could they have a time limit on a conversation on their day off?

Niall was scared. If it was Bradford – and all evidence pointed to that being the case – then he was late. There was always a time limit with Bradford’s texts. Niall was expected to be at the texted location in one hour exactly or else he’d be in even more trouble. They’d been having this conversation for almost two!

Louis watched in concern an Niall stopped trying to get to the phone and started freaking out. Niall began pacing the room and pulling at his hair while muttering to himself. Louis tried to make out what Niall was saying but he ran into two problems. One, Niall was speaking quickly and quietly and two; Niall wasn’t always speaking English.

What little Louis could decipher were mere phrases, “Too late…. Kill me… so much more… I’m dead… what do I do… screwed… breath… pain… no… please no”

After almost ten minutes of Niall pacing Louis realized that the boy wasn’t calming down but rather becoming more and more agitated to the point where he was having a panic attack. Niall was trembling and sweating and appeared to be having a hard time breathing and he didn’t seem to know where he was any longer.

Louis felt like an ass. Not only had he forgotten about Niall’s claustrophobia but he’d forgotten about the panic attacks too. He sorted through his mind trying to remember anything about a panic attack but he didn’t know much. Going with a last ditch effort to try and help the terrified boy pacing around in front of him Louis picked Niall up and started bouncing him like he had earlier in the elevator.

At first Niall didn’t even notice anything had changed he just continued to panic. Slowly however the bouncing motions and the large hand on rubbing his back started to calm him down. It was a gradual process and took a good hour but when Louis finally felt the trembling stop he was relieved and looked down to find a sleeping Niall on his shoulder.

Shaking his head and knowing that the rest of the conversation would have to be put on hold for a while Louis tucked Niall into bed for the night and hoped that tomorrow would go better.


	8. Do You Know Niall?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I know it's been a while but I do what to say I have not abandoned this. Work, school and family do come first though. If you have any questions by all means ask and I will do my best to answer. Thank you.

After having put Niall to bed Louis looked at the time. It was merely 5:30. Having no desire to go to bed himself Louis checked on the sleeping boy one last time before heading down to Liam and Harry’s room. He needed to talk to them anyways.

“Hey mate what’s up?” Liam greeted opening the door to his room and stepping aside.

“Louis!” Harry called happily, “Where have you been up to all day?”

Louis sighed and sank down on the couch as he contemplated his answer. What had he been up to all day? He’d calmed Niall’s nightmare, spanked the boy and then put him back to bed. He’d forced food into Niall then gotten so caught up in his own musings that he hadn’t even notice when Niall slipped out of the room. He had spent almost five hours searching for Niall only to find the boy in the workout room and then proceeded to play a ‘game’ of who texted and why before Niall had a panic attack and Louis had to calm the boy down before putting him back to bed. So, what had he been doing all day? “I’ve been getting to know Niall”

Liam and Harry shared confused looks before Liam turned to Louis, “We already know Niall”

“Do we?” Louis questioned.

“Of course” Harry insisted, “We’ve known him for five years now”

“Is that so?” Louis asked.

“Yes” Liam and Harry answered simultaneously.

“Alright then,” Louis sat up a bit straighter, “If you know Niall so well perhaps you’d be willing to answer a few questions?”

“Absolutely” Liam said.

“Bring it on” Harry challenged.

Louis just shook his head at his friend’s certainty. He would have been the same way just a few days ago. “So, I will ask three questions. 1) What four people does Niall talk to the most, whether it be call, text or face to face? 2) How often does Niall eat? 3) What does Niall do with his spare time?”

Liam and Harry were so sure of themselves that they rapidly started spewing out answers. “1) is easy” Harry assured, “The four people he talks to most are the three of us and his family”

“2) is obvious” Liam smirked, “Niall eats all the time. The boys is obsessed with food”

“3 isn’t hard either” Harry said, “Niall spends his spare time the same way we do. As a group”

Louis just shook his head, “Well for two people who insist that they know everything about one of their band mates you two have gotten every single question wrong”

“What?” Harry said annoyed.

“How could we have possibly gotten those questions wrong?” Liam argued.

“Easy” Louis said, “You don’t know Niall”

“We know Niall” both boys insisted.

“Really?” Louis asked, “then let’s go over the correct answers shall we?” without waiting for a response Louis jumped right into it, “The four people that Niall hears from most are the band, security, management and Bradford”

“Bradford!” Harry and Liam interrupted. The two of them had never met the man but they did remember the story that Louis had told them.

“You said that Bradford had been fired” Liam argued.

“I was told that he had been” Louis answered.

“Then how is Niall talking to him?” Harry asked.

“I have no idea but if I had to take a guess I’d say management had something to do with it” Louis said.

“Why would management have Niall meet with Bradford?” Liam asked, “especially after what that man did to you”

Louis sighed, at first he’d wondered the same thing but after talking with Niall he felt he could take an educated guess, “Because they don’t give a shit about Niall”

Two confused “What?” was the only response that Louis received.

“Management has Niall running around like a chicken with his head cut off between one direction duties and band duties. They boy never has a chance to take a break. Or eat which by the way is the answer to question 2. Niall almost never eats”

Harry and Liam just sat there in stunned silence. Louis wasn’t certain what was going through their heads but he just barreled on anyway, “The answer to question 3 – what does Niall do with his spare time. Now I’m not sure of all of it but based on what I’ve seen I’ll list a bit. When Niall is not with us working and he’s not with the band practicing or at meetings then he is working out for three hours a day, he takes cooking lessons from the kitchen staff, he used to take piano and drum lessons but those appear to have ended and he likes to read. Also from what I can tell he has been learning multiple languages because not all the books I found in his bag were in English.”

With his piece said Louis sat back quietly and let Liam and Harry process what they’d just heard. Naturally there was absolute denial at first however Louis was more than happy to tell the boys about his day of shadowing Niall, the research Louis done by snooping through Niall’s phone and the conversation/interrogation he’d conducted just a couple of hours ago along with the subsequent panic attack.

It took a long time for Liam and Harry to fully grasp the truth – at least as far as Louis understood it – and by the time that they were done it was rounding on midnight. Louis sighed as he looked at the time, “I’m going to head out. I want to check on Niall and then get some sleep, no doubt I’ll have a long day tomorrow”

“No” Liam interjected, “We’ll all have a long day tomorrow”

Louis smiled at Liam before heading out of the room, “I’ll hold you to that then” he said before shutting the door.

Sighing as he knew tomorrow would be full of fights especially since Niall had a doctors appointment Louis just prayed that the rest of the night would go smoothly. He had high hopes considering Niall should really be sleeping still … unless he’d had another nightmare. Louis could have kicked himself he’d forgotten about the nightmares.

Louis hurried to open the door only to be met with an empty room, “Shit” annoyed Louis turned around and started searching for the nearest security personal. “I don’t suppose you know where Niall is this time?” Louis sighed.

The security man paused before answering slowly, “Mr. Horan is busy at the moment”

That got Louis’ attention. The last time Niall had gone missing security had been all over it in seconds. This time they didn’t seem to care. “You know where he is?”

“Yes” the man admitted.

“Brilliant” Louis clapped his hands together; “Take me to him then”

“I can’t”

“What? Why not?”

“Mr. Horan is in a meeting and is not to be disturbed”

“What?” Louis almost yelled, “What meeting could Niall possibly have on our day off!”

The security man looked nervous but he wouldn’t give and no matter what Louis promised or threatened he was not informed of where Niall might be. An hour later a completely frustrated Louis stomped back to the hotel room and paced around awaiting Niall’s return.

It was three thirty in the morning before Niall stumbled back to his hotel room. His fingers hurt so bad that he dropped the key card three times before he was able to get the stupid thing into the slot. By the time he was done both the keycard and the door had blood on them, oh well, he’d clean it up in the morning. Yawning as he finally stepped into the room Niall had every intention of curling up under his covers and passing out from sheer exhaustion. His plans were altered slightly once Louis caught sight on him.

“Where the hell have you…” Louis started to scream only to stop abruptly upon taking in the sight before him.

Niall was standing, really it was more like swaying and almost tipping over, in front of the closed door with massive bags under his eyes. His lips looked dry and cracked and his eyes were blood shot. Most disturbing to Louis though was that there appeared to be blood dripping from the tips of Niall’s fingers.

“What happened to you?!” Louis asked in concern as he rushed up to the boy. “Are you OK? Let me see your hands. How did this happen?”

Niall cringed as Louis came towards him. He’d had a crap night and he just wanted to lay down and let the safety of unconsciousness take over, hopefully he’d fall so deeply that he wouldn’t even dream, that would be nice – dreams were bad.

Louis’ constant barrage of questions and his increasingly close presence did nothing to make Niall feel better. Niall kept trying to dodge Louis but he was exhausted and had next to no energy left. It didn’t take long before he just collapsed only instead of hitting the floor as he’d expected Niall found himself propped up against a soft but firm surface and moving.

Louis had freaked when Niall started falling and closed the last few feet between them in record time. Instantly Louis picked Niall up and started carrying the boy into the bathroom. He set Niall down on the toilet and kept one hand on his chest as to prop him up while using the other hand to fill the tub. It didn’t take much to get Niall undressed and into the warm water seeing as how Niall was almost completely out of it. It concerned Louis to see Niall so still and complacent after having to fight with him on everything.

Niall just let Louis do what he wanted, he was too tired to fight and his throat was too soar to argue. The only reaction he gave was when he felt the washcloth start to creep towards places it wasn’t allowed. Almost instinctually Niall stilled Louis’ hand and tried to take the cloth from him. He had enough energy to wash there himself.

Louis stopped moving when Niall grabbed his wrist but he didn’t let go of the cloth, he wanted at least one answer first “Niall, I’ll let you have it but I need to know where you were”

Niall looked up at Louis dejectedly before sighing and croaking out one word, “text”

It took Louis a moment to understand what Niall had meant. He had been immediately concerned with Niall’s voice, or lack there of, and hadn’t notice Niall take the cloth from his hand. As he sat there and waited for Niall to finish he finally grasped the meaning of what Niall had said. And he felt like an ass.

Knowing that now was not the time to question Niall because: one, the boy was exhausted, two, Niall couldn’t talk properly right now anyway and three, it had been a long and emotionally trying day for Niall already, Louis just let the matter drop for the time being.

As soon as Niall was clean Louis lifted him out of the tub and dried him off. “You want something to eat?” he asked.

Niall just shook his head no, it wasn’t a meal time so no food was allowed.

Louis sighed, “How about some water then?”

Niall did accept that. Water never had to wait for a mealtime it could be consumed at any time and it had zero calories. Water was Niall’s favorite. The second he felt the tip of a glass to his lips Niall started gulping down as much as he could only to have it taken away again.

Louis almost chuckled at the weak glare Niall gave him, “You need to slow down. Drinking too fast can make you sick”

Niall once again felt the glass against his lips and started to drink as fast as he could lest it be taken again. He didn’t care about Louis’ warning, he’d done this enough times before to know how it worked but all that mattered to him at this moment was that his throat was killing him and he was dehydrated.

Louis just shook his head as Niall dried to down the cup in one go. He knew that Niall wouldn’t slow down willingly so he took hold of the bottom of the cup and tilted it down, forcing Niall to slow his drinking. While Niall scowled at him, Louis felt no remorse.

Once Niall had consumed three glasses of water he turned his head away from anymore and started to sway where he sat. Louis took that as an indication it was time for bed and gently laid Niall out on his bed. Knowing that Niall was too tired to move much less dress himself Louis took it upon himself to get Niall into his night clothes.

By the time both he and Niall were ready for bed it was almost five. He sent a quick text to his doctor requesting putting off Niall’s appointment until at least three that afternoon so that the two of them could sleep. Louis didn’t even bother waiting for a reply before he pulled Niall close and closed his eyes.


	9. Check Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who have asked, no, this is not going to be an ageplay story. None of the boys have any desire to regress Niall to be dependent on them they want him to be able to take care of himself and to be healthy. If you are looking for a Niall ageplay story I did start one called Subtle Adjustments if you would like. Enjoy.

When he started to wake up Niall found himself in a weird state between full awareness and slight floating. His eyes felt heavy and he had no current desire to force them open. He could feel heat coming from someplace close by and it took a moment before he could reasonably guess that it was Louis sitting next to him on the bed. The last sensation he noticed was something running through his hair and messaging his scalp slightly – it felt really good.

Niall would have more than happily stayed in his trance like state for a while longer however he knew that he had band practice at some point today and he needed to fix a couple of the strings on his guitar. He had attempted to replace the strings last night however his fingers were too slippery and instead of fixing anything he just got blood everywhere. Bradford had eventually given up and let him go.

Sighing Niall rolled over onto his side and started to get up out of the bed. He’d almost made it to a standing position when something took hold of his upper arm and pulled him back down. Frowning slightly Niall finally opened his eyes and turned to face Louis. Only catch, it wasn’t Louis he was staring at.

“Li…Liam?” Niall croaked out.

Liam gave a sad smile as he looked down at the blond, “Hey, Nialler. You alright?”

Niall was confused. Why was Liam sitting on the bed next to him? Why had Liam called him Nialler? They weren’t in public; there was no need for a nickname. Why was Liam smiling at him? “What’s… go…going….on?”

“Here Niall, take this” Harry said coming over with a bottle of water and a couple of Advil.

Niall hesitantly took the bottle of water but ignored the pills. He wasn’t allowed to take anything to ease the pain of his ‘lesson’, he’d been through that before and it hadn’t ended well. Somehow Bradford always found out.

Harry and Liam frowned when they saw that Niall had left the pills, his throat was obviously hurting him and his fingers couldn’t be a pleasant feeling.

Liam reached out and took the pills from Harry and held them directly in front of Niall’s face; “You forgot these”

Niall just shook his head and continued to drink his water grateful that Louis wasn’t there to stop him from chugging it.

Liam sighed and took hold of the water bottle, “You need to take the pills Niall”

Niall shook his head no again and reached out for the bottle of water that Liam was currently holding hostage.

Liam didn’t understand. Why was Niall refusing the pain pills? They weren’t anything serious, just the basic over the counter stuff. “You’re not getting the water back until you’ve taken the meds”

Niall glared at Liam before bolting from the bed and racing for the door. The one plus about Liam having taken his water bottle was that the man’s hands were full which gave Niall the chance to get away. Harry had been on the other side of the bed and Niall knew that he could easily beat both of the other two to the door. What he hadn’t counted on was Louis to be walking up to the door at that very moment.

“Whoa there” Louis said as he easily caught Niall, “Where are you off to?”

Niall thrashed in Louis’ hold but soon found himself being carried back into the hotel room. Because his throat was still soar Niall couldn’t really yell out for Louis to let him down and his twisting and wriggling was getting him nowhere so, he stared to thump on Louis’ back. That earned him five hard swats.

“No hitting” Louis scolded as he finished spanking Niall and handed him over to Liam.

Niall’s face was beat red. Louis had just smacked him in front of Harry and Liam! Not fair! On top of that there was another man who had followed Louis into the room and still Louis had smacked him! “Co…contr…control…freak”

“Well, that doesn’t sound good” the mystery man said as he made his way over to where Niall was sat next to Liam on the bed.

“We think that he was made to sing himself hoarse last night” Harry informed.

The man looked up at Harry in shock, “And why would he do that?”

“We think someone made him” Liam said.

The man appeared concerned by this but didn’t say anymore questions. “Alright then Mr. Horan,” the man said as he pulled out a bag from his side and started opening it, “Let’s have a look at you shall we?”

Niall’s eyes went wide when he watched the man pull out a stethoscope, flashlight and tongue depressor. He was a doctor! “Did…mana…management…send …you?”

“No, Niall,” Louis said, “This is Dr. Hernandez. He’s my doctor”

Instantly Niall tried to get up and move away. If management hadn’t sent the Dr. then Niall shouldn’t be seeing him. His last doctor had been a good guy but he’d asked a few too many questions for managements liking so he’d been fired. After that Niall had been told that he would only see a doctor if management thought that he needed to see one otherwise he could patch himself up. It wasn’t Niall’s ideal situation but he hadn’t said anything about it though it did make it difficult to keep an inhaler.

“Niall, you need to be still” Liam admonished slightly as he struggled to hold down the boy.

“No” Niall croaked out. He did not need another ‘lesson’ from Bradford so soon after his last one thank you very much.

“Niall, this is to help” Harry said coming over to help Liam restrain Niall, “Now just stay still”

“No” Niall said weakly. He struggled as much as he could but in the end it was no use the two older boys had him pinned to a chair.

Dr. Hernandez seemed hesitant to go anywhere near Niall seeing as the lad clearly did not want medical attention but the boy just looked so frail.

“Dr. If you would” Louis said gesturing towards Niall, “We’ll make sure that he cooperates”

“I don’t think this is entirely ethical” Dr. Hernandez admitted.

Louis sighed before walking over to a struggling Niall and lifting the boys shirt up, “And I don’t think I should be able to count his ribs”

The Dr. looked appalled at the state Niall was in, “You shouldn’t” he said before coming over and pulling up a chair right in front of Niall, “Alright open up please”

Naturally Niall clamped his mouth shut and glared at the doctor. The man seemed nice but the only thing this check up would do was get him in trouble and he didn’t want that.

“Niall” Louis warned.

Niall turned his glare to Louis and defiantly shook his head no.

Louis moved forward and gently pried Niall’s mouth open while holding the boy’s head still. “Will this do?”

The Dr. shook his head but took a look down Niall’s throat, “Your throat’s quite red and agitated, I would recommend resting your voice for a day or so and taking some over the counter pain pills would be good as well”

“He won’t take them” Liam informed.

“What?” The Dr. asked.

“He refuses to take pain pills” Harry said.

Louis gave Niall a look of promise, “He’ll be taking them”

“Very well” the Dr. said. There was no point in arguing over forcing the boy to take medication because it was quite clear that once he left Niall would be taking the pills no matter what anyone said.

Moving on the Dr. continued to check over a struggling Niall. Every time he needed to do something the three other boys in the room would maneuver Niall wherever he was needed to be despite the continuous fight that the small blond gave. Eventually the Dr. sat back and sighed, “I’m all done now boys. You can let him go”

With that Niall finally felt himself being released. He glared at all the others and made to get up only to be pushed right back down into the chair. “Stay” Louis ordered.

“Not…a…dog” Niall huffed out only to then be admonished for talking! According to Harry he was supposed to be ‘resting his voice’ like they ever cared before.

“So Doc” Liam asked, “What’s the verdict?”

The Dr. looked around at all four of them and couldn’t help but think that this was the strangest examination he’d ever given. “Well, he’s severely underweight and he needs to eat. Also I would recommend rest, he’s exhausted. His fingers need to be kept clean and it wouldn’t hurt to put Neosporin in the bandaids. He should rest his vocal chords for a day or so to give them time to heal and pain medication would help both his fingers and his throat. Lastly, he defiantly has asthma and I will write a prescription for a refill on his inhaler though at a lower dosage given his weight. Once he’s up to a healthier weight he will get a stronger prescription”

“Alright. Thank you” Louis said, “I’ll walk you out”

“Very well” the Dr. agreed, “Take care of yourself Mr. Horan”

As soon as the Dr. was gone Niall once again tried to make a break for it but was restrained around the waist and lifted up before being dropped down onto the bed. “You’re staying here Ni”

Niall glared at the other two but they had placed themselves between him and the door so he couldn’t exactly get away.

“Whose up for some lunch?” Harry asked looking for something to do.

“Sounds good to me” Liam agreed.

“Just be sure to order soup for Niall” Louis added coming back into the room, “Doc says it’ll help with his throat.

“Soup it is” Harry nodded walking over to the phone to order room service.

“Not…hungry” Niall stated.

“You need to rest your voice” Louis said in response as he walked over with a glass of juice, “Here, drink this”

Niall looked skeptically at Louis for a moment but took the glass; his throat was killing him. Hesitantly Niall took a sip before deciding that Louis wasn’t about to force pills in his mouth as soon as it opened. Once Niall started drinking Louis walked away so Niall felt safe enough to drink the rest. He drank quickly lest it be taken away and missed the smirk that formed on Louis’ face as he did so.

Lunch arrived shortly after. Harry and Liam set the food out on the table while Louis went over to collect the blond. “Time to eat”

“Not…hungry” Niall said his voice coming out a bit stronger than it had before.

“I wasn’t asking” Louis stated as he plucked Niall off of the bed and placed him in a chair at the table.

“Let’s eat!” Harry called happily as he started digging into his food.

Three boys ate and talked while the last sat pouting and trying to push away. Louis had looped his foot around one of the legs of Niall’s chair and Liam had done the same on the other side effectively keeping Niall pinned.

“Let…me…out” Niall demanded.

“Eat up then” Liam said simply.

Niall huffed before slouching back. He looked at the food in front of him, it wasn’t much and it was a proper mealtime so the others couldn’t get on him if he were to eat. Begrudgingly making his decision Niall leaned forward and started spooning the soup into his mouth. It was good and Niall found the bowl empty sooner than he would have liked but he wasn’t about to ask for more.

Liam, Harry and Louis were relieved when Niall actually ate his food. No one wanted to force feed the boy.

“How about a movie?” Liam asked as they finished clearing the table.

“Sounds good to me” Harry agreed.

“Alright” Louis said, “What movie do you want to watch?”

“How about Texas Chainsaw Massacre?” Harry suggested.

“Nah, we just saw that” Liam said, “What about Freddie vs. Jason?”

“No, that one’s boring” Harry complained.

As Liam and Harry were arguing over which horror movie would be better Louis watched Niall. The kid seemed anxious and as the movie list grew longer Niall started hedging closer and closer to the door. Just as Niall thought he was about to break free Louis slung an arm around his shoulders, “Which movie would you like to watch Niall?”

Niall froze as all eyes turned to him, “Um…” he hated horror movies, “doesn’t…matter”

“Well sure it does” Harry scoffed, “Here you choose we have… Halloween, the exorcist, alien, scream…”

Niall flinched at every single DVD box he was shown and it didn’t take Louis too long to remember one key fact, “Not a fan of horror movies are you Niall?”

Harry stopped reading off movie titles and all three boys turned their full attention to the smallest one in the room. “It…it’s…fi…fine” Niall stuttered.

“You know what?” Liam said, “It’s been forever since I’ve seen Toy Story what about you guys?”

Quickly Liam received two nods of agreement and soon enough all four boys were sitting on the couch watching a Disney movie. As they watched Louis started rubbing Niall’s back, Liam started ruffling Niall’s hair and Harry found himself kneading Niall’s knee. Before he ever knew what happened Niall was out cold stretched across his three band mates.

“So how do we plan on getting him to take the pain pills?” Harry asked once he was certain Niall was out.

“He already has” Louis said.

“What?” Liam questioned, “When?”

“In his juice” Louis admitted, “The Dr. gave me some liquid Advil. I just mixed it in with the juice and Niall was none the wiser.”

“Nice” Harry smiled.

“Whatever works” Liam agreed.

By the end of the movie there were four boys asleep on the couch.


	10. Jeff

The soft buzzing of his phone roused Niall from his deep sleep. He opened his eyes and brought his arms above his head to stretch a little. That’s when he noticed that three pairs of arms were holding him down. Confusion warred with curiosity inside of him, why was he laying across his three band mates? Why had they allowed it? None of the boys had ever allowed him to even sit near them outside of interviews in five years and yet here he was lying on top of them?

His phone buzzed again and Niall put his curiosity to the side for the time being as he started to loosen the arms that were pinning him down. If he was right that was Josh texting about band practice and he could not miss this one.

Liam stirred when he felt a light weight being lifted off of him. What had he kicked off in his sleep? Harry maybe? No, looking over Liam saw Harry sleeping on the other side of the couch. Louis was between him and Harry so he couldn’t be the culprit, Zayn wasn’t here anymore so it couldn’t have been him meaning…

Niall had almost made it out the door when an annoyed looking Liam stopped him in his tracks, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Niall froze, hand on the doorknob and debated his options. He could turn and answer Liam, tell him the truth and then head out; surely the man wouldn’t follow him. That might take longer than he had though and Niall couldn’t be late to this practice – not after he’d skipped the last one. Another issue with this plan was that if Louis woke up then he would definitely stop Niall from leaving, Louis didn’t seem to care that Niall got in to trouble for missing practice. The only other option Niall had was to open the door right then and bolt, ignoring Liam completely. Knowing that time was ticking and that he just couldn’t afford another ‘meeting’ with Bradford so soon after his last one, Niall choose option two.

Liam was stunned when he saw Niall jerk the door open and run out of the room. What the hell had gotten into him? Instantly Liam was up and out the door after Niall, his sudden departure from the couch managed to rouse the last two sleeping boys and soon enough there were three people chasing Niall down.

Niall had managed to make it all the way to the bottom floor and had just hopped off the last step, turning to face the exit door only to find three angry band mates instead. “How?...”

“Elevators are faster than stairs.” Harry answered simply.

“Look guys,” Niall tried, “I really have to go.”

“You’re not going anywhere but back to the room.” Liam informed the boy as he stepped forward into Niall’s personal space.

Niall backed up as Liam approached but he quickly found himself pinned against the wall, “I have to go to practice today,” he pleaded, “I can’t miss it.”

“Your fingers are too sore for you to be playing,” Louis reasoned, “Therefore you can’t do anything at practice anyway”

“I can still play.” Niall argued.

“How?” Harry questioned.

Niall rolled his eyes, “I’ll use a pick.”

Three boys just shook their heads in disbelief at the insistency of the blond one. None of them truly believed that because Niall had a pick in one hand he would suddenly be able to play the guitar without any pain or without doing any more damage to his fingers. The one question that did nudge the tip of Louis’ tongue however was, “How many times have you had to play with injured fingers before?”

Harry and Liam turned shocked expressions to Louis while Niall just shrugged. He shrugged! As though it were nothing! “It’s no big deal.”

Well that had been the wrong thing for Niall to say. Instantly there were three loud, insistent objections to that comment but Niall wasn’t listening, he just didn’t get it, why did they suddenly care? Alright yes, it had been Niall’s goal to get the three of them to like him however he honestly thought he’d already done that. Then Louis went and screwed everything up.

“Can’t we just go back to the way things were?” Niall begged. That would be so much better.

Louis scoffed, “Do you mean when we ignored you for the past five years or where you were practically our slave for the past two and a half months?”

Harry and Liam looked down guiltily and Louis felt like an ass himself but it was the truth and he honestly wanted to know which one Niall had preferred, it sickened him to even think that.

Niall hesitated. Which did he want? For the past five years he’s been trying to better himself so that the boys would like him, he’d killed himself learning everything he possibly could and he’d done a good job. Also, he’d gotten to help the camera men on their video shoots and learn how to create graphics on a computer that would be displayed over a green screen. He’d learned editing and computer coding, it had been awesome and it had made the video shoots so much better. During the photo shoots he had learned how cameras worked, he could now take one apart and put it back together all on his own. He learned how to develop photos the old fashioned way as well as editing them on the computer. He’d learned how the lighting worked and crawled through the rafters to help with the wiring, it had been awesome. He’d learned so many languages and history, science, geography, math, literature. He had learned multiple instruments and could play every single song on any of their set lists, hell he had helped to write a majority of the music that was played on the past two albums. He knew how to cook extremely well and in a variety of cuisine, it was fun. He had learned so much and he had enjoyed doing it.

These past two months though and Niall had felt as though he’d been coming apart. He was constantly late to wherever he was supposed to be because he was taking care of the boys’ needs before his own. He was eating so much less than he was before, especially on the bus because he never had time or the others ate it first. He had been made to watch a number of horror movies despite how he hated them because every once in a while the boys took notice of him trying to slip away and insist that he sit with them and watch. He had met with Bradford five times in two months! Sure there were some ups to it like playing video games with them or playing football but otherwise, was anything truly better?

“Niall?” Louis asked hesitantly. It was taking the boy an awful long time to come up with an answer and that worried Louis more than he’d like to say.

“Honestly?” Niall checked. He received three nods so he took a deep breath and looked up right at Louis’ meeting the older one’s eyes, “I want to go back to the way it was when you all just left me alone completely.”

Liam, Harry and Louis were crushed. Could Niall have truly preferred it when they ignored him? Could they have let things really get that bad? How had they not have noticed? What had they done to this sweet caring boy? Or really, what had they turned the sweet caring boy into because the Niall before them was no longer the one that they knew, he was no longer the boy whom they remembered fooling around with, protecting, caring for. No this Niall was so very different.

Or was it that this Niall wasn’t all that different? Had it been so long that they didn’t actually remember but rather made up their memories? It was possible, five years was a long time. Did they ever really know Niall? It was doubtful, they’d only been together as a band for less than four months before Niall had dropped from their radar. They only had themselves to blame for this though; they had done this to their precious Niall. They had destroyed this boy.

“I’m afraid we can’t do that Ni.” Liam said sadly. He wasn’t trying to be mean or to disrespect Niall’s wishes but he, Harry and Louis had already let Niall alone for too long, it couldn’t continue.

Niall became angry then, “Well I don’t give a damn what the three of you think you can and can’t do because I know that you can leave me alone. You’ve already done it for five years now.”

Once again the three guilty boys felt their hearts shatter. If this was how they felt after only ten minutes of realizing what they’d done they couldn’t help but wonder how Niall had been feeling for the past five years?

“Niall,” Louis started, “We can’t begin to tell you how sorry we are or how bad we feel about this. We can’t make up for any of it…”

Niall snorted. He didn’t believe a word they were saying and in all honesty, why should he? What reason had they given him to trust them, really? Three days of obsessively hovering over him by Louis and one afternoon of being forced to have a doctor’s appointment – one that would earn him a trip to see Bradford at least three times – did not trust make.

Liam felt like crying, Harry already was and Louis had turned away slightly so Liam couldn’t tell. They had done this; they had made Niall so cynical. This was their fault and they had to fix it. And fix it they would, Niall just might not like them for it.

Decision made Liam finally just picked Niall up and held the boys tightly in his arms as he started walking towards the elevators. Liam could feel Niall struggle in his grasp but he ignored it however once he started getting punched in the arm and the back Liam readjusted Niall and then placed five, strong, swats to the boy’s backside. He heard the hiss that let him know his message had been received as he pushed the button on the elevator to take the four of them up to the fifteenth floor.

Niall froze once they entered the small box. As soon as the doors closed he started shaking slightly, freaking out inside his own head. Right now, as bad as it sounded, he really wished that Louis would take him and comfort him again. That had felt so nice and had made the ride go by quickly last time.

As though reading Niall’s thoughts Louis reached out his arms towards Liam, “Here let me take him.”

Liam was confused, “What’s up?”

Louis took hold of Niall and started to lift him out of Liam’s grasp as he answered, “He’s not a fan of elevators. Claustrophobic.”

Liam nodded in understanding as he watched Louis lay Niall’s head onto his shoulder and bounce the boy slightly while rubbing Niall’s back and whispering soothing nothings into the blonde’s ear. It was amazing how obvious Niall’s discomfort was after Liam saw the boy relaxed. Liam hadn’t even noticed until now just how tense Niall had been.

As they exited the elevator Niall breathed a sigh of relief, he hated those little boxes. He sometimes wished that they were like the Doctor’s TARDIS, bigger on the inside - that would make riding in them so much better.

Just as Harry was placing the key card in the door one Liam spotted one of the security staff coming down the hall towards them. “Something wrong?”

The security man, Liam thought his name was… Jeff? Sure he’d go with that. Anyway, Jeff ignored Liam completely and turned towards the blond boy currently in Louis’ arms. “You’re late.”

Now Jeff had everyone’s complete and undivided attention, and not in a good way. Niall shuffled a bit in Louis’ hold trying to get down as he mumbled a quick apology. Louis however was not about to let Niall go anywhere and just tightened his grip on the squirming boy.

“And what is Niall late for exactly?” Harry asked innocently, “I though we all had the day off?”

Jeff hesitated a little before turning to Harry and smiling kindly, “Mr. Horan merely… asked me to inform him of… when the others would be… playing a game of football,” he spit out eventually, “Said that he wanted to join them.”

All four of them could see that it was a blatant lie. It started to click for them then, security was well aware of all that Niall had to do, always had been. Liam, Louis and Harry just didn’t get it. Why was security so willing to run Niall into the ground? Why would they make an obviously exhausted boy participate in everything? Was it managements doing? Or had Niall instructed them to do this? That one was doubtful but knowing Niall’s insistency to make every activity he just might have and then it barreled out of proportion. Was it Bradford that they were listening to?

Louis stopped then, “It was you lot who work Niall up and made him go see Bradford yesterday wasn’t it?”

“What!?” came two simultaneous shrieks of rage from behind Louis.

Jeff was visibly nervous here, “How…” he cleared his throat, “How do you know about that?”

Niall shrunk in Louis’ hold nervous that Jeff would blame him for this. Or, more accurately, that Jeff would tell management and management would send him to Bradford for this.

Louis could feel Niall’s nervousness and paused in his glaring at Jeff to turn to Harry, “Take Niall in the room would you?”

Harry immediately took Niall from Louis’ arms and before the boy even knew what was happening Niall found himself with a door between him and Jeff. One part of him was relieved not to have to deal with Jeff at the moment but a larger part of him knew that he was absolutely screwed.

Once the door was shut Harry set Niall down and placed himself between the boy and the exit. He could see that Niall was nervous and he did recall Louis mentioning that Niall is known to have the occasional panic attack. “Hey, Ni,” he tried to soothe, “It’s alright. Louis and Liam will straighten this out, you don’t have to worry about Jeff or Bradford anymore.”

Niall couldn’t believe what Harry was saying, was the boy really that dense? Did he truly believe that management would let this go simply because Louis and Liam told them to? It was never gonna happen. No, Niall needed to get things back to they way they were before. Before Zayn left, before the boys started noticing him, before everything went to pot. As bad as things had been for Niall back then at least he’d gotten to eat once every day, he’d gotten to sleep one to two full nights a week without the aid or Louis, he’d gotten space and to do things that interested him at times. Now he was practically a slave, catering to the boy’s needs. He was eating maybe once every three days and he never slept through the night without Louis by his side. It had to stop; he had to end this.

Liam and Louis knocked on the door before they entered, breaking Niall out of his internal thoughts. “How’d it go?” Harry questioned.

“We informed… Jeff, that Niall would be taking today off along with tomorrow as we’d all been promised,” Liam stated proudly as though he’d scored some great victory.

Niall just groaned, “You dumbass.”

“Excuse me?” Louis asked angrily, “I do believe that you are not supposed to be cursing.”

“And I do believe that I don’t give a shit.” Niall snapped.

The three boys remained frozen in shock by the door. They had never seen Niall this upset, this angry. Liam attempted to move forward and appease the boy but Niall wasn’t finished yet.

Niall was furious. No, he was beyond furious, there wasn’t a word for what he felt right now. How dare they! How dare they do this to him! “What gives you the right to dictate what I can and can’t do? What makes you so important that you now have control over my life? Nothing!”

Louis, Liam and Harry watched in awe as Niall started pacing around the room, “For over five years the three of you haven’t given me a seconds thought and yet here you are ruining my life! Do you realize Louis that because you told Josh that I wouldn’t be at band practice yesterday that I had to go meet with Bradford! Do you know what it’s like?! That man is insane! He made me play every song for five straight hours! Sing them as well! At the top of my voice! He stood in the back of the stadium and took away my microphone saying that he had to be able to hear me the entire time or I’d have to do it again! I never finished! The only reason he let me go was because the blood made my hands too slippery to replace my guitar strings. I wasn’t even allowed to stop playing until two of them broke!”

Harry was crying now, Liam couldn’t even look at Niall and Louis had tears in his eyes as he watched the distraught boy continue to pace. This had to be killing Niall’s throat but the boy wasn’t about to stop.

“Do you know what my day would have been like if you’d just let me alone?” Niall asked though it was rhetorical and he gave no opportunity for an answer, “I would have gotten up, worked out, relaxed, gone to band practice for an hour, hour and a half at most, and then spent the rest of the day resting until supper where I would have finally gotten to eat. But no, because of you I had to spend my day getting…” Niall visibly hesitated here clearly disgusted with the idea, “Spanked… be forced to take a nap, have food shoved down my throat, sneak out, play some asinine game over who texted me, have a panic attack, sleep again and then spend five hours WITH BRADFORD!”

Niall was starting to breath heavily now and Louis was concerned that he’d either need his inhaler soon or he would have another panic attack. Before he could do anything though Niall continued.

“And what’s with the sudden interest anyway? Even after Zayn left none of you ever paid me this much attention. I don’t even know why I wanted you to like me anymore, I really don’t. What’s the point? All the three of you have done is make my life miserable. My one family wasn’t as bad as you three. At least they were honest about how they felt. My mother up and left, my brother only saw me three times, talked to me only one of those times and my father couldn’t be bothered by my existence and only stuck around for the booze and drugs.”

Liam felt as though he would be sick, but Niall wasn’t done yet.

“You three though, I can’t figure you out. You go from being nice to me to telling me that I’m fat and a pig and in the way and stupid and a baby. You kick me out of every single thing you do telling me how pathetic I am for being there in the first place. You tell me I’m a pig because I stuff food into my mouth between band practice and interview. Kicking me out of the room when I woke you from a nightmare. What more could I have done to annoy you? What did I do to change everything? Why do you hate me?”

At once all three boys opened their mouths to assure Niall that nothing he had done had caused this, that they did not hate him but the boy didn’t stop long enough for them to say one word.

“I didn’t get it. But instead of blaming you, I blamed myself. After all it had to be me didn’t it? I was the common factor among everything. The fans hated me, Management hated me, and honestly it never bothered me at first, but then you three turned on me.”

Guilt like never before welled up in the three boys standing against the door. Absolute guild and shame and to make matters worse, Niall wasn’t even finished.

“So I fixed it. I fixed everything. I worked and I waited and eventually my opportunity came. When Zayn was still in the band you were a perfect set of four, you didn’t need me. But now, Zayn’s gone and you need a fourth. I was so excited,” Niall admitted. “I was foolish. I should have known that nothing good could come from Zayn leaving. Hell I should have felt a bit worse than I did when I heard the news but… I couldn’t. I didn’t know Zayn, not really. I don’t know you. But I tried to. As soon as we got to that first hotel I tired to be on my best behavior, prove to you three that I was worthy of being a part of the group again.” Niall laughed as though he were reveling in some inside joke that only he knew.

“I didn’t even make it ten minutes before I had Harry pissed at me for picking the wrong bed and then he was banging on the door to the bathroom demanding that there be enough hot water for him when it was his turn to shower."

Louis slowly came to the realization as to why Niall insisted on taking cold showers. He could hear Harry sobbing next to him but couldn’t tear his eyes away from Niall to look.

“Then, of course, I woke him up by my screaming. I was so nervous.” Niall admitted, “I just couldn’t help it. That’s the one thing I just never could fix. Didn’t matter though. The next night I learned from my mistake. I took a shower on the bus and then didn’t enter the room until Liam had already taken a bed. Still screwed up though, yet another nightmare, got me a couple of bruises that did.”

Louis could hear Liam’s breath hitch as he realized what he’d done but it didn’t deter Niall.

“But still, I learned. Louis, you threw me that third night. I honestly expected you to be pissed when you woke me up but you weren’t. I didn’t get it, still don’t. That’s the one thing I’ve yet to figure out, why you did that? Why you helped me?” Niall shook his head, getting back on point though this time he slowed his pacing, “I eventually succeeded though, got you all to tolerate me. I just had to become your servant. I cooked for you, I cleaned the bus, I packed your things, did the laundry, got you snacks. I did everything you asked, took care of all of your needs and you know what I learned?”

Niall stopped pacing and faced them as though to actually let them answer only this time, none of them had anything to say, none of them could even open their mouths to say anything.

“I learned that all this preparation I’d done, all this time I’d worked so hard to get you all to like me… It was all for nothing.” Niall shook his head and looked down, “I was even more miserable than I had been. I was better off on my own. I was naive when I tried to make you like me; it was stupid. I hated every single second of it. Though if I’m being honest with myself, these past five years haven’t been much better.”

Louis’ breath caught in his throat. What was Niall saying?

Niall looked Louis in the eye then, as though he’d heard the unasked question, “I want to leave the band.”


	11. Breathe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's short I know. I will have another chapter up in a day or so therefore be patient.

Now Niall wasn’t stupid. Realistically he knew that the likelihood of management letting him out of his contract was one in a billion. It was still something he wanted. Yes they had let Zayn out of his contract but that was Zayn and he was Niall. If Zayn had gone public about management refusing to let him out the world would have responded, the fans, the boys, everyone. If Niall were to take it public who would care? No one.

All the boys had just renewed their contract after Zayn had left. Management had made it part of the agreement that the rest of them sign a five year contract when they agreed to let Zayn leave. It had been one of the requirements and all the boys had agreed because they were trying to help Zayn. Niall had pretty much signed his soul away to the devil. In truth, he’d done that the day he signed his first contract, he just hadn’t known it yet.

If management heard about what he just said he’d have a meeting with Bradford every day for a week. When management found out that he missed another practice he’d have another meeting with Bradford anyway. Really, when management found out about this whole ordeal Niall would be seeing Bradford every day for a month. Inside his own mind Niall was running through all the possibilities of what Bradford would do to him and he was terrified.

Liam and Harry were stunned in frozen fear. Niall couldn’t leave. They hadn’t driven Niall to leave! How could they have done this to Niall? What was wrong with them?

Louis was also consumed in guilt however at the moment he was taking a closer look at Niall. For just having screamed everything that had been bottled up in him and then declaring that he wanted to leave the band, Niall looked very calm. Well, Louis was assuming the boy was calm but in truth there was no emotion on his face whatsoever.

Louis didn’t understand how Niall could be so calm, or emotionless, at this point. He thought back to the last time he saw that look on Niall’s face and he got it then. The last time Niall had looked like that was just earlier when they had all walked into the elevator. Niall wasn’t calm; he was petrified.

Instantly Louis was over to Niall and had the boy in his arms.

“It’s alright but you need to calm down Ni.” he tried to soothe. He kept rubbing his hand up and down Niall’s back and he noticed something, “Niall, love, you need to breathe.”

Liam and Harry jerked out of their revelries when they heard Louis start to beg Niall to breathe.

“What’s wrong with him?” Liam demanded as he hurried over.

“He’s having a panic attack and he’s not breathing” Louis stammered out in panic.

“Well…” Harry stammered, “What do we do?”

Louis was petrified. Niall still wasn’t breathing and he had two other boys freaking out on him as well. He wracked his brain trying to remember what it was that the doctor had said earlier. “Um… We need to calm him down and get him breathing but he’ll probably need his inhaler.”

“Where’s that?” Liam asked.

“I’ve got it.” Harry called coming over.

“Well give it to him.” Liam demanded.

“We can’t yet.” Louis stopped the two, “We have to calm him down some first.”

With that Louis turned his back on the other two boys. He appreciated their assistance but right now his soul focus needed to be on Niall. “It’s alright buddy,” he tried, “I just really need you to breathe with me. In… one… two… three, out… one… two… three.”

Liam and Harry stood off to the side and watched as Louis paced the room with Niall in his arms, bouncing the boy lightly and rubbing the blonde’s back as he repeated the same mantra over and over again. About the same time Niall’s lips had started to take on a slightly blue tinge to them they all finally heard the boy attempt to take a few shuddered breaths.

“Inhaler.” Louis demanded.

Before Louis’ even finished speaking Harry had the inhaler pressed to Niall’s mouth, “Alright Ni, here we go.”

Harry pushed the inhaler once and then held the tube in his mouth as Niall tried to breathe in.

“That’s really good Niall.” Liam praised as he ran his hand through the blonde hair, “Ready for another?”

They repeated this about three times before Niall’s breathing started to even out and the three boys could finally take a breath themselves.

Niall was exhausted; there was no other word for it. He tried, he really did but he couldn’t keep his eyes open, didn’t even have the strength to keep his head up. Before he knew what was happening Niall had fallen asleep with his head on Louis’ shoulder.

“Is he alright?” Liam asked nervously.

Louis looked down at the blonde head currently trying to curl into Louis as tightly as possible, “He’ll be fine.”

Harry looked uncertain, “Are you sure? He’s out cold.”

“Yeah Haz,” Louis assured. “He’s just tired. The doc. said that a panic attack or an asthma attack could make him tired but both would wear him out.”

“Oh.” Harry nodded, “alright then, so long as he’s alright.”

Louis just shook his head as he laid Niall out on his bed so the boy could get some proper rest. Once Niall was securely tucked in Louis turned back around to face the other two in the room.

As much as Louis knew they all needed to have this conversation Louis also knew that they needed to keep it down for Niall. This time however he wasn’t about to leave Niall alone in the room. He’d learned his lesson last time.

“Why don’t we all sit on the couch?” Louis suggested gesturing to the couch on the other end of the room.

Harry and Liam nodded and all three quickly sat facing the wall none wanting to look at the other during the conversation they were about to have. The shame and guilt eating away at them stopped them from even glancing at the person next to them for they knew that all felt the same way.

Louis cleared his throat, “We can’t let him leave the band.”

“I know,” Liam sighed. “But how can we convince him of that?”

“We don’t have to.” Harry answered. At the two sounds of confusion he received Harry expanded, “The new contracts we signed prevent us from leaving for five years.”

Louis closed his eyes. Of course. “Why did he sign it?”

“The same reason we all did.” Liam replied, “To help Zayn.”

Harry gave a choked laugh, “He agreed to put himself through five more years of torture all to help someone that he didn’t even really know.”

“At the time he was hoping to be welcomed by us.” Louis admitted.

“We let him down.” Liam finished.

Harry turned to look at Louis then with big, pleading eyes, “We have to fix this.”

“I know.” Louis sighed. “But we can’t do that by focusing on what we did or how we screwed up. We need to focus on Niall and what Niall needs.”

“OK.” Liam agreed. “So what does Niall need?”

“Sleep.”

“Food.”

“Rest.”

“To be happy.”

They all nodded in agreement as their short list came to a close. Despite the fact that there were only four things on it, the list would be one of the hardest things they’ve ever had to accomplish.

“So how do we go about doing that?” Harry asked after a beat of silence.

“Well one things for sure, “Louis spoke up, “Niall won’t be meeting with Bradford any longer.”

“Or with management alone.”

“Or with security alone.”

“Let’s face it,” Liam sighed, “Niall isn’t going to be alone anytime soon.”

They all laughed at that despite the fact that it wasn’t funny. They needed something to laugh at no matter how small, something to make this conversation just the tiniest bit easier.

“But,” Liam posed. “How do we get this all done when we seem to be the only ones who care about Niall’s well being?”

It was true. Management showed no concern over Niall’s health. Neither did security and Bradford clearly didn’t. The band seemed indifferent from what Louis had seen, or maybe they just didn’t know? That was doubtful but possible.

In the end Harry was the one who suggested a solution. “We need to get them all together in a room and talk everything out.”

Liam scoffed at that. “You expect us to be able to get the senior levels of management, including Simon, the head of security, who is the new guy? Nate? All the members of the band, and Bradford all in a room together with us and Niall?”

“Don’t forget Mark, Niall’s trainer and Dr. Hernandez.” Louis added.

“How are we going to do this then?” Liam wanted to know.

“Easy.” Harry replied. “We refuse to do any one direction duties until we get what we want.”

All three boys looked at each other here, checking to see that they were all on board with this plan. No one showed any sign of disagreement; it was unanimous. As of this moment one direction was going on strike.


	12. Meeting

Louis was the one who called Simon and gave him their demand. Simon wasn’t very pleased but in the end he agreed, if only because he couldn’t really have the entire band go on strike.

At four that afternoon Harry, Louis, Liam, Niall, Simon, the two heads of management Peter and Blake, Mark, Dr. Hernandez, Nate, Bradford, Jon, Josh, Dan and Sandy were all sitting in a large conference room in the hotel.

“So boys,” Simon started things out. “Why did you call this meeting exactly?”

“I didn’t.” Niall wanted to clarify. He was in enough hot water as it was, the last thing he wanted to do was add to it.

“We wanted to talk about Niall.” Louis answered simply.

“And what is it about Niall that has you so concerned?” Simon asked.

“Everything.” Harry answered simply.

Louis didn’t miss the way Niall flinched at this so he decided to clarify a little. “Our concern isn’t Niall exactly. It’s how you all treat Niall.”

“Come again?” Simon asked thoroughly confused. While Simon still talked to most of the boys regularly he had never really been looking over management’s shoulder, but rather trusted them to take care of the band while he focused on other things. He didn’t really know anything about the boy’s day-to-day lives.

Liam rolled his eyes, tired of the game they were all playing. “Management has been running Niall around like a dog for five years and security has been helping. If he ‘screws up’ in their eyes they send him to Bradford. It’s not healthy and it needs to stop.”

Simon felt as though he’d missed quite a bit of the story. But before he could even get the chance to try and clarify his confusions, Peter and Blake were going off about how Liam was making things up. At the same time Nate was defending himself by saying he was only following the orders of Peter and Blake. Bradford insisted he was only doing what he was hired to do. Dr. Hernandez decided to round out the group by going on about how unhealthy Niall currently was. Simon was getting a headache.

“ENOUGH!”

Everyone froze and turned to look at the small blonde boy currently standing and glaring at them all.

“Mr. Horan-” Peter started to scold.

“Shut it.” Harry objected and then turned his attention back to Niall. “What’s up Ni?”

Niall was scared and yet furious all at once. He couldn’t believe what they were all doing here. He had been woken from some much needed sleep only to have some food forced upon him and then be dragged down to this little room. He had paled as he watched more and more people enter and still he had not been told what they were here for. Now they were all screaming their lungs out about how they were completely in the right to torture him. He couldn’t take it anymore so he’d screamed. Now though, he’d gotten what he wanted and really had nothing more to say. With his head bowed Niall slumped down into his seat knowing full well that his little outburst would cost him dearly later on.

Simon waited a couple of minutes in the silence to see if Niall was planning on continuing but the boy was staring resolutely at the table and wouldn’t meet anyone in the eye. Shaking his head he decided to move on. “Alright I have some questions.”

Everyone nodded in understanding and waited nervously for Simon to begin.

“Louis,” Simon started. “Since you are the one who insisted upon this meeting, why don’t you go around the table and explain to me why everyone is here. At that time if those people have anything to say they may do so, otherwise I want silence.”

Louis accepted his assignment and started with the person sitting to his immediate right. “The band is here because they are with Niall during practices and meetings. They always practice during a time when the rest of us,” he gestured to himself, Liam and Harry, “are eating and when Niall should be eating as well. Niall misses meals quite frequently, almost daily in fact, because of band practice. Also they practice on days that we have off so Niall doesn’t get the same down time that we do. Not only that but Niall is required to go to band meetings as well and if he is not allowed to miss a single meeting or practice.”

Jon raised his hand and waited for Simon to acknowledge him. “Niall is a part of the band. He is expected to be at all the meetings and practices. Peter and Blake told me at the beginning to inform them if Niall misses anything.”

Simon thought this over for a minute. “How many songs does Niall play in?”

Jon broke eye contact, thinking over the answer. “About half.”

“How many of them does he play solo?”

“One.”

“Is that part of the half he plays in?”

“Yes. He plays in twelve with us, one on his own and then we have twelve that we play alone on.”

“Does he affect your choreography? He walks around with the boys even while playing doesn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“So does he need to be at all your practices?”

“Well…” Jon hedged. Management had told him that Niall had to be at every practice. But that was management and Simon over ruled them, “We will never turn him away.”

Simon narrowed his eyes; that wasn’t an answer. “Does Niall need to be at every practice? Yes or no?”

“No.” Jon admitted.

“How many would you say he’d need to be at?”

“Probably once or twice a week when we have performances but if we don’t then maybe once or so every other week.”

Simon nodded at this taking it all in.

“I’m fine going to all of them.” Niall cut in.

“No.” came the simultaneous response of Liam, Louis, Harry and Simon causing Niall to slouch back in his chair again.

Turning back to the topic at hand Simon once again addressed Jon. “Why does Niall go to band meetings?”

Jon shrugged a little there. “I’m not entirely certain. When we are working on the music to new songs then I can see the point but that’s only when the boys are making a new album and the latest one is finished so he doesn’t really need to be there.”

“Then he won’t be going.” Simon said definitively, “Please do let him know when you are working on finishing up new songs though.”

“I can…” Niall tried but he was quickly silenced by a glare from Simon.

“Niall please wait until it is your turn to talk.” Simon scolded lightly. He understood that this had to be hard for Niall, being the main topic of discussion and yet not getting to say anything, still it was important.

Seeing that they were done with all the band concerns Simon dismissed Jon, Josh, Dan and Sandy before gesturing for Louis to continue.

“Next is Mark. He’s Niall and Liam’s personal trainer.”

“Is there a problem with Liam here as well?” Simon asked.

“No.” Louis assured. “Honestly, I don’t know that he’s the problem or if it’s Niall’s insistency to work out for two hours after training and then three hours on days he doesn’t have training.”

“I don’t encourage that.” Mark informed.

“What do you encourage?” Simon asked.

“I have the boys workout for an hour with me twice a week and I tell them to do some light exercise for about an hour a day three times a week. That has always worked with Liam. I’ve been having Niall do less with me over the years because the boy is so skinny and it isn’t healthy. I didn’t know about the extra workouts.”

Louis cut in here seeing as he knew a bit more in that area. He went on to describe all that he had seen Niall do during the two hours after Mark had left and then explained that part of the reason was no one ever made sure Niall stopped working out. Mark had a client immediately after Niall so he always left first and never checked to see that Niall left as well.

“There will be strict gym access in all upcoming stops from this point forward.” Simon stated.

“What!?” Niall screeched. “You can’t do that! I have every right to work out as I see fit!”

“No.” was once again Niall’s response only this time Mark joined in.

As with the band, Mark was dismissed after he had changed Niall’s workout days to match Liam’s so that there would always be someone there to make sure that Niall stopped and took a break.

“Securities up.” Louis said, “Nate as the head of security is the one I asked for because it would be rather difficult to hold a meeting with all two hundred security staff. The biggest concerns I have with security is that they come and collect Niall if he is late to something and they even take him to Bradford. They don’t keep a good eye on Niall though because the boy is more than adept at evading them and bypassing them altogether and just leaving the building. Security doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that Niall can get away from them; just find it more of a nuisance. They are also teaching Niall hand to hand combat and I would like for that to stop because Niall needs to limit his exercise not increase it.”

“That’s quite a lot for one group.” Simon noted, “Anything to say Nate?”

“Peter and Blake are the ones who ordered for us to take Niall to his meetings if he’s late. They are also the ones who insist the boy goes to see Bradford. My staff is merely following orders.”

“Very well.” Simon said, “Consider those orders revoked. I will be dictating who Niall will be going to see and when or I will have one of the other boys do so, but Peter and Blake’s previous orders are cancelled.”

“Very well sir.” Nate agreed quickly. “We can suspend the hand to hand combat training if you would like.” At Simon’s nod of assent he continued, “Does that also mean you would like the weapon training to cease?”

Simon shot a disbelieving look at Nate there. “Why is Niall receiving weapon training?”

“He asked for it.” Was Nate’s only response.

“I wanted to learn.” Niall defended himself.

“It is also going to be discontinued.” Simon stated simply. Really? Why was Niall doing all of these things? Simon just didn’t get it.

“As for Mr. Horan’s running off.” Nate continued. “My men have asked him many times to stay with us or let us know where he is planning on going so that someone can accompany him. He does not. He is very skilled at getting away from us. We have had him cornered before and somehow he has managed to get away. I just don’t understand it.”

Simon thought this over for a long while before looking up and glaring at Niall. “He will wear a tracking device in the form of a wristband. They have those yes?”

“Yes.” Nate agreed at the same time Niall screamed, “NO!”

Niall was ignored and Nate was soon dismissed with strict instructions to find Niall a waterproof tracking device for his wrist as soon as possible. Top of the line too; lest Niall be tempted to try and break it or hack it.

“Is Bradford truly a question?” Louis asked somewhat snarkily. “I was told that none of us would ever have to see him again five years ago and yet here I have come to find out that Niall has been forced to meet with him at least once a month.”

“I agree with you Louis.” Simon answered simply. “Bradford you are relieved of your duties. Pack your things and leave.”

“I have a contract.” Bradford argued.

“Just be happy that you aren’t having charges pressed against you for what you’ve done to Niall.” Liam replied.

“That little shit got everything he deserved. I should have done more. Maybe then he would learn not to tell lies.” Bradford seethed.

Instantly Harry, Louis and Liam were on their feet staring Bradford down more than willing to jump in and defend Niall. Thankfully Simon had security come in and escort Bradford out of the building before it came to anything more than a glaring contest.

After composing himself Louis continued on. “Dr. Hernandez is my personal doctor however after seeing that Niall had an inhaler that was overdue for a refill I called him in to examine Niall.”

“Why not have Niall’s doctor examine him?” Simon asked.

“Don’t have one.” Niall answered.

“Why not?”

Niall shrugged; may as well, it was coming out anyway. “Management fired him. Said he was too nosy.”

Simon couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He would deal with that later. For now he turned to Dr. Hernandez. “What did you find doctor?”

Dr. Hernandez hesitated but it seemed as though Niall wasn’t objecting to this information being told to the people in this room. Also, Simon seemed genuinely concerned for the boy and Niall really needed that. In the end the Dr. repeated what he had told Louis in the hotel room. Simon had been surprised to hear about the fingers and had insisted upon seeing them not at all happy with what he saw. The doctor did note that Niall’s voice bounced back quicker than expected, but Niall merely shrugged and explained that it ‘always came back faster after each session’. That pleased no one but they let it be.

After prescribing rest and food Dr. Hernandez was also dismissed.

“There’s only two people left.” Louis said glaring at Peter and Blake. “I would explain to you why they are here but I think it might be better if you read it for yourself.” With that Louis handed Simon all the texts from management he’d forwarded to himself from Niall’s phone.

“Well.” Simon said after some time. “What I want to know from you two is why? Why did you do this to Niall?”

It was Peter who proved brave enough, or stupid enough depending on how you looked at it, to speak up. “He’s useless. No one liked him when this thing started. We have built him into something and we sure as hell won’t let him destroy it now.”

He’d said it with such… hatred such… disgust that it was hard to believe that he was talking about a living person, let alone their sweet little Nialler.

“There’s really only one response I have to this.” Simon said simply. “You both will be joining Bradford in unemployment. Good day.”

Peter and Blake sat there for a few minutes debating if Simon was joking or not. When it became clear that he wasn’t they gathered their things and left wanting to be spared the embarrassment of having security come and ‘escort’ them out.

Sighing as he sat back Simon turned to the four boys sitting across from him. A lot of things had been brought to his attention in a short amount of time and many changes made yet he still wasn’t done. “I have to know. Why did it take you all five years to tell me about all of this?”

Harry, Liam and Louis all shared guilty looks as they silently debated who would fess up. In the end Louis was voted the ‘lucky’ one and the others did their best to stop from crying.

“We are to blame here just as much as the rest of them.” Louis admitted.

“What?” Simon asked confused.

“We’ve been ignoring Niall for five years. Ever since the first tour we’ve forgotten Niall completely. Well, not exactly. We first told him that he was fat, lazy, stupid, useless and so many other things. We broke him and then we forgot him and left him to the sharks.”

“Why would you do such a thing?” Simon demanded to know.

“We didn’t mean it.” Harry assured.

“We were all new to touring and the stress that comes with it.” Liam tried to explain. “It’s no excuse but we were just kids and we took out our stress and fear on Niall. It was wrong and we know that now but we can’t change the past.”

“We are trying to change now though.” Louis added. “That’s why we’re doing this. Because we want what’s best for Niall.”

Simon took in what they were saying. He could see the raw pain on all of their faces; he could tell that they were truly sorry for what they had done. “It doesn’t get any of you off the hook.”

“We know that.” Harry admitted.

“Trust us.” Liam said, “No one can punish us more than we are already doing.”

“I do believe that.” Simon admitted. He realized that he too had let Niall slip through the cracks. He had kept in touch with most of the boys but the one who he’d never texted or called was the little blonde. This was also his fault in many ways.

Silence drifted over the room for many long minutes before Simon looked up at the one person whom he’d ignored for far too long. “What do you have to say, Niall?”


	13. What Now

Niall looked between Simon, Liam, Louis and Harry. He was fuming. He couldn’t believe what had just taken place. Why had this meeting been held? He thought that everything had been going well, up until this week that is, but otherwise – great. Now Simon was trying to change everything. It’d never work. Why were they even bothering?

“Niall.” Simon snapped.

Niall jerked his head around to face Simon. “What?” he sneered.

Simon narrowed his eyes. “Careful with your tone. I asked you what you think of all of this?”

Niall took great personal offense when the man trying to control his life and then scolding him on his tone. “What the hell does it matter what I think?”

“Niall.” Liam scolded.

“Screw you!” Niall screamed turning to the boys. “What does it matter? What does any of this matter? Is it because I said I want to quit? Is that why you’re doing this? Well fine! I won’t quit so long as you all leave me the hell alone!” With that Niall made to stand up and storm out of the room – he didn’t make it far.

“Sit down!” Liam insisted. He hovered over Niall and shoved the boy back down into the chair by his shoulders.

Niall barely hid his flinch as the bruises on his shoulders reminded him of Liam’s strength as they screamed in pain. Good news for him was that he was extremely adept at hiding his pain. Bad news, Louis was starting to pick up on some of his tells.

“Niall?” Louis asked gently. He didn’t know what was up but something was bothering Niall. Over the past few days Louis had noticed that when Niall was truly upset or freaked out he would go absolutely still.

Niall ignored Louis. He didn’t want to deal with him. He didn’t want to deal with any of them.

“Niall, I’m still waiting for an answer.” Simon said.

“I gave you my answer.” Niall said simply. “I want to be left alone. I’ll do everything I’m supposed to. Be at all the meetings and interviews and whatever else. Otherwise, stay the hell away from me.”

Simon shook his head, “Niall you know that isn’t going to happen.”

Niall was becoming enraged. “I don’t give a shit what you want to…”

“Niall James!” Louis scolded. It didn’t matter where they were or who was in the room, there were rules and Niall had just broken one. Louis was standing in the blink of an eye and he’d brought Niall up with him. He landed five successive swats on the younger’s backside before settling the boy back down. “I’ve told you many times that there’s no cussing.”

Niall was furious with Louis, had many choice phrases for the man, he just didn’t feel like being put over Louis’ lap for said phrases. In lieu of responding as he saw fit, Niall just crossed his arms, turned his body as far away from the others as possible and pointedly ignored everyone in the room.

Sighing Louis turned to Simon. “I’m sorry of the interruption. I don’t think we’ll be getting anything out of Niall at the moment, however.”

Simon nodded; he had to agree with Louis. “Very well, then I will tell all four of you how things are going to go from now on.”

Liam, Louis and Harry all gave Simon their full attention while Niall remained resolute in his refusal to acknowledge any of them.

“I honestly can’t believe the three of you!” Simon started lecturing. “How can you go five years without realizing that Niall was slowly killing himself!”

“Over exaggerate much?” Niall cut in. “Honestly with the way you talk, one would think that I’m on deaths door.”

“You’re skin and bones. If the lack of nutrients doesn’t kill you then the over working will.” Louis replied calmly.

“I’m so sorry I’ve displeased you. Here I thought you’d be thrilled. After all isn’t this just what you wanted?” Niall snapped.

Louis, Liam and Harry all felt like jerks. Technically Niall wasn’t wrong, they had told him that he was fat and stupid and useless. Management had agreed and there were certain ‘fans’ who had felt the need to inform Niall that he was horrible as well. With all that pushing against one vulnerable boy there were only so many likely outcomes. In truth they should all be extremely happy that Niall had turned to learning and working out rather than drugs, alcohol, depression or any number of self-destructive activities. It didn’t make it right though.

“They were wrong.” Simon stated cutting into the argument.

“And you’re so much better?” Niall questioned sarcastically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Simon asked.

Niall scoffed, “How many times a week do you talk to Liam? Or Louis? Or Harry? Or even Zayn? And how many times a year do you talk to me?”

Simon kept quiet, feeling guilt well up inside of himself. Ever since the band was put together Simon had talked to all the boys at least twice a week, if not more. He talked to all the boys regularly, except for Niall.

He just now realized how oblivious he was to the Irishman. He rarely spoke to him, and only ever saw him when it was necessary. He never visited with him, never chatted him up; he didn’t even know what was going on in the boy’s life. And it made him feel awful. It made him feel overwhelming sadness, overshadowed by guilt. He felt tears come to his eyes at the epiphany but swallowed it back, opting to try and rectify the situation.

“I have come to see the error of my ways, and I’m going to try my hardest to fix that, to be better. I’m sorry for everything that has happened. I can only wish I had the power to turn back time and fix it all. But Niall, we need to make some serious changes. You’re not healthy right now. You’re going to harm yourself irreversibly if you don’t change these bad habits you’ve formed over the years. We only want to help you before we can’t anymore. We want to try to make it better, to try to help you. Alright?”

“Screw you.” Niall sneered. He had tried to get them all to like him and that had backfired. Now he just wanted to be left alone.

“I’m sorry you feel that way Niall.” Simon apologized. “But it’s not going to change anything.”

“Why ask me if I agree if you aren’t going to respect my answer?” Niall growled.

“Niall, we’re only looking out for you.” Louis tried to be patient.

Niall scoffed. “This isn’t what’s best for me. How would you lot even know what’s best for me? You don’t even know me.”

With that Niall attempted to stand up and storm out of the room but no one else was willing to let him go.

“Sit down!” Liam ordered.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Harry asked.

“You’re not leaving.” Simon insisted.

Louis didn’t bother saying or ordering anything. He beat Niall to the door and merely plucked the boy up, carrying him back to the table.

“Let go of me!” Niall demanded struggling around in Louis’ grip. He started pounding on Louis’ back but stopped immediately when he felt stinging pain in his backside. Damn Louis!

“I think you’ll just sit here with me until it’s time to go.” Louis said calmly as he sat down and positioned Niall in his lap.

“Leave me alone!” Niall demanded. He wriggled himself around desperately trying to get out of Louis’ grasp but to no avail.

Louis sat back and kept a tight grip on Niall and just let the lad tire himself out. Niall wasn’t hitting, kicking, biting or cussing so Louis felt it best to wait the boy out rather than fight him and egg this on.

Eventually Niall just slumped back in exhaustion; he didn’t have the energy to fight any longer. “Fine,” He snipped. “I’ll stay. Now let me up.”

“I’m glad you’ve agreed to stay,” Louis nodded. “But I believe you’re better off right where you are.”

Niall scowled but didn’t say anything. If they weren’t going to listen what he wants then he wouldn’t listen to them either.

“Right.” Simon started. “So, obviously we are all share blame in this situation. We all ignored Niall and as much as we want to there’s nothing we can do to change that. What we need to do now is make sure that Niall gets better.”

Liam, Harry and Louis all nodded their agreement. This conversation was about to become very important to Niall and unfortunately the boy was refusing to acknowledge any of the others. Simon sighed and moved on.

“We have already discussed a lot of changes that will take place. To summarize, Niall, you will no longer have weapons training, hand to hand combat training, band practice is going to be only once a week while we are on tour and for once you will enjoy your days off. Also you do not need to attend band meetings. You will no longer have open access to the gym, the only time you’ll be allowed in there will be with Liam during your training sessions with Mark. There will be no more meetings with Bradford, if you hear from or see that man again I want to be informed immediately. Are there any questions so far?”

“Cooking.” Niall stated simply. He enjoyed his cooking classes and by the sound of things Simon was canceling every class he took. That couldn’t be allowed.

“Cooking?” Simon asked confused.

Louis wracked his brain, what cooking could Niall be referring to? What did Louis know about Niall cooking? Oh… “I think your cooking lessons can stand so long as they’re not an everyday activity. Maybe once or twice a week depending on how busy we are.”

Niall scowled but didn’t complain. From the way things were going it was probably the best he would get. He could sneak out and find trainers for the rest of the activities anyway.

“What cooking lessons are these then?” Simon asked confused.

“Niall takes cooking lessons from the kitchen staff.” Louis clarified.

“Ah. Well, if you don’t see them as detrimental to his health then I will trust your judgment on this.” Simon agreed, “Just so long as you accompany him.”

Niall scoffed. “They’ll never let that happen.”

“Why not?” Simon asked.

Niall chuckled quietly while Louis blushed, “There might have been a bit of an, uh, accident the last time.”

“I think accident is a bit of an understatement.” Niall offered.

“What happened?” Harry asked curiously.

Niall snorted, “What didn’t happen? Louis was a walking disaster.”

“Hey!” Louis argued in his own defense, “Spilling the cinnamon could have happened to anyone.”

“Anyone?” Niall questioned in disbelief.

“Yes.” Louis stated.

“And what about breaking the blender blades?” Niall asked.

Harry gave Louis a disbelieving look, “How did you break the blender blades?”

Louis tried to explain himself. “How was I supposed to know that you shouldn’t put potatoes-”

“Raw, unpeeled potatoes,” Niall cut in

“-peanuts-”

“Unshelled peanuts.”

“-and eggs-”

“whole eggs, still in the shell plus a fork that fell in!”

“-into a blender?” Louis finally finished.

Harry and Liam stilled for a moment taking in the complete list. Once they fully understood they burst out laughing.

“Still,” Louis tried. “I think that enough time has passed, and I’ve replaced the blender. The kitchen staff would probably-”

Niall snorted, “Did you replace the toaster too?”

“What did you do to the toaster?” Liam asked in disbelief.

Louis blushed furiously, “That’s beside the point. I still think that it would be fine if-”

“What were you cooking anyway?” Harry interrupted.

“Fried rice.” Niall answered simply.

Harry opened his mouth as if to say something but changed his mind and closed it again. He repeated this action a few times before he successfully found some words, “Are you sure?”

“I’d never cooked before.” Louis tried to defend himself.

“Point being,” Niall brought everyone back on track. “Louis isn’t allowed within fifty feet of the kitchen so he can’t come along. Meaning-”

“Meaning, “Simon interrupted, “That Harry will go with you during your cooking lessons. Hopefully he won’t destroy so many appliances.”

“Or start a fire.” Niall added.

“You started a fire!” Liam exclaimed.

“It was a small fire!” Louis insisted.

“Regardless!” Simon insisted, “Louis you will stay far, far away from the kitchen and Harry, you will go with Niall. Any other questions?”

Liam, Louis and Harry all shook their heads no. “Do you actually think you’ll be able to get me to go along with all of this?” Niall asked snidely.

Louis quickly turned Niall to face him. “Oh, I’ll see to it.” He promised.

Niall scowled and turned himself to face away from Louis. As much as he wanted to laugh in Louis’ face the man had proven that he was capable of controlling at least some of what Niall did. Louis was a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully he was skilled at escape and evasion, couple that with the times he’d be away from Louis for cooking or workouts and he’d get to do what he wanted. He just needed a bit of patience.

“Moving on,” Simon started up again. “While I have informed Nate that Niall’s schedule will be determined by myself or someone else whom I have appointed. Louis I am appointing you to be in charge of Niall. That’s not only his schedule but his eating and sleeping habits as well.”

“NO!” Niall screamed and once again renewed his attempts to move away.

“That’s fine.” Louis agreed as he tightened his grip around a struggling Niall. “I’ll make sure he follows the doctors orders as well.”

Niall was tired of this; they had no right to control his life. When his struggling got him nowhere, Niall decided to try one last ditch effort. He leaned down to attempt to bite Louis’ arm.

“Hey!” Louis scolded when he saw what Niall was about to do. Instantly he put the boy on his feet and swatted him ten times before settling him back down.

“OW!” Niall complained. “You have no right to do that!”

“He has every right.” Simon informed. “Now, it’s getting late, I want you all to have a relaxing day tomorrow.”

Liam, Louis and Harry all nodded their assent while Niall pouted, still stuck in Louis’ hold.

“There’s just one last thing.” Louis said. “The doctor gave me a diet for Niall and I need some things.”

“Alright,” Simon agreed. He pulled out a pad of paper and a pen, “What’s the list?”

“I need different protein shakes for Niall to have for breakfast. Then his big meal would be lunch, lots of carbs with that meal but also every food group should be represented. I need soups and breads or other light meals for supper.” Louis said listing off the menu the doctor gave him. “Also I need a variety of fruits for morning snacks and different, pre-packaged items for an afternoon snack such as goldfish or crackers, maybe a rice Krispy treat.”

Simon nodded, “Alright, I’ll give the list to Nate.”

“Well, that’s all I had.” Louis said.

“Very well.” Simon agreed. “Now there’s only one last order of business to attend to.”

Niall narrowed his eyes, “What more could you possibly do to me?”

Instead of answering Simon merely got up and opened the door where Nate was standing with something in his hands.

“I got the top of the line model. It just came out on the market. Never been beaten. It’s water proof and can be worn for as long as necessary.” Nate informed as he held up a sleek black armband.

Niall gulped, he knew what that was and there was no way in hell they were getting that thing on his wrist.

Louis quickly tightened his grip as Niall tried to slip free, once again.

Simon looked over to watch Louis’ struggle to keep Niall still. “Boys would you mind?” he asked gesturing towards the two.

Harry and Liam immediately got up and helped Louis to hold Niall still while Nate made his way forwards.

Niall spit out every cuss word he knew, threatened the boys, Nate, Simon, anyone and everyone but to no avail. When Nate stepped back there was a black bracelet on Niall’s right wrist.

“There you go.” Nate said standing back up. “It’s locked now. The only way to open it is to place the key into the small slot on the side,” he pointed to Niall’s wrist and Louis could see a small slit in the side of the armband. “And then to type in a six digit key code into the pad on the app.”

“Thank you.” Simon said to Nate. “Now I want access to the tracking data and I also want Louis to have the same access.”

“Very well.” Nate agreed. “I’ll send you the link to the app and the passcodes later this evening.” With that Simon handed Nate the shopping list and then dismissed the man.

“If there’s nothing else I’d like to make sure Niall eats something before he goes to sleep.” Louis said.

“Of course.” Simon agreed, “I’ll see you boys in a few days.”

“Bye Simon.” Harry said.

“See ya Simon.” Liam said.

“Thank you.” Louis said.

“You suck.” Was all Niall had to say.

Louis sighed but let it alone. Today had been a hard day for Niall and at least it wasn’t a curse word.

Louis put Niall on his feet and then guided the boy out of the room with a hand on his back. Niall knew better than to fight Louis on this, he wouldn’t be able to really escape from any of them until he figured out how to get this bloody arm band off. Once he did that he could go and live his own life, one where he wouldn’t try and get close to anyone ever again. Other people were a waste of time.

It took Louis a lot less fighting than he would have thought to get Niall to eat a small bowl of soup and a slice of bread. What did cause a problem though, was showering.

“Get out!” A shirtless Niall demanded as he tried to shove Louis out of the bathroom.

“I would,” Louis argued. “But I don’t trust you not to take a cold shower. Instead you’re going to take a warm bath while I sit on the toilet seat.”

“Like hell!”

“Watch the language. That’s rather close to a cuss word.” Louis warned as he started to draw a bath.

“I’m not taking a damn bath!”

Well, there went Niall’s options. Louis stood up, finished getting Niall undressed, swatted the boy five times on his bare bottom and then placed him into the warm bath.

“Now,” Louis sighed, kneeling down by the side of the tub. “Let’s get you all clean and ready for bed shall we?”

Niall fought Louis the entire time but regardless of his arguments the only time Louis handed over the washcloth was when Niall washed his own private areas. Of course as soon as Niall had the cloth Louis started shampooing the younger’s hair.

“Tilt back please.” Louis asked.

Niall sighed but complied knowing that he wasn’t about to win this battle. Maybe he should have just gotten into the tub when Louis told him to, things would have been a lot less embarrassing with Louis just sitting on the toilet lid rather than Louis washing him.

After Louis conditioned Niall’s hair he drained the tub and let the lad dry and dress himself, the bath was over after all. When Niall came out of the bathroom he was exhausted and rubbing at his eyes.

“I think it’s time for sleep.” Louis said softly.

Niall wanted to argue but his body was telling him otherwise so he just nodded and stumbled towards his bed. Hopefully he’d just pass out and not have to dream tonight but he doubted it.

“Hey,” Louis said gently taking hold of Niall’s arm. “Come on. You can sleep in my bed.”

“Really?” Niall asked softly.

“Yeah Ni.” Louis assured as he slowly brought the younger man over to his bed. “We’ll both sleep better that way.”

Niall just nodded his assent as he curled up next to Louis. Niall was out before he even fully knew what happened. Louis smirked as he felt Niall shift closer until his head was resting on Louis’ chest, ear resting over Louis’ heart. He started running his hand through Niall’s hair gently as he lay there waiting for sleep to overtake him. These next few days were going to be hard and he could use all the sleep he could get.


	14. Boring

Louis sat next to Niall as he watched the lad sleep. Niall was so much calmer when he was sleeping – barring any nightmares. There was no frustration or worry etched into his face and one could actually tell that Niall was just a young man, barely in his twenties, when the boy was asleep. When Niall was awake his entire body was always so tense. So controlled were his movements and actions that Niall never had time to just let his body relax.

Naturally, just as these thoughts were running through Louis’ head, Niall’s face started to contort into pain and the boy began to shift around a bit. Sighing a little for Niall, Louis started to run his hand through the boy’s hair and whisper soothing phrases in his ear.

Eventually Niall calmed down and his face went back to that calm that only seemed to occur when he was peacefully asleep. Louis just shook his head and gently extricated himself from under the lad. He wanted to go down and get breakfast before Niall woke up.

Quietly, Louis texted Liam and Harry, asking them to watch over the sleeping bundle on the bed for a little while. No more than three minutes later and the two were letting themselves into the hotel room, reporting for duty.

A half an hour later Louis returned to his hotel room to find Harry sitting guard at the door talking to Liam who was playing a game on his phone while lying on the bed. Niall was pouting and staring at the window, curled up on the windowsill. The room looked as though a battle had taken place. The couch was tipped over, both beds had been stripped of the covers which were currently soaking in the bathtub, the pillows were all piled on the opposite side of the windowsill from Niall, and the rug and the hair dryer were hanging from the ceiling fan.

Louis groaned. “What happened?”

“Finally!” Harry exclaimed jumping up from his chair. “How long does it take to eat?”

Louis rolled his eyes and turned towards Liam. “What happened?”

“Someone,” Liam said jerking his head towards a still pouting Niall. “Didn’t want to drink his breakfast.”

Louis sighed and looked over to the vanilla protein shake sitting on the table. It looked as though Niall hadn’t drunk any of it. Well, this morning was off to a wonderful start.

“Niall,” Louis said hesitantly, walking towards the pouting boy.

Niall glanced up at Louis briefly before turning his attention out the window once again.

“You know, the sooner you finish your breakfast the sooner we can head out and do some sightseeing.” Louis tried.

“No.” Niall responded.

Louis closed his eyes and took a calming breath; it was too early for this. “May I ask why not?”

Niall actually turned to face Louis completely then, a little surprised. “It’s boring.”

“It’s boring.” Louis repeated. Alright, it was boring. What the hell did that mean? Louis looked at the drink, it was a simple vanilla shake. He didn’t get it. “How about you come pick one out then?”

Niall sighed but did come over to the mini-fridge in the room. He wasn’t all that hungry, but if it would get them off his back then he’d drink something. What harm could that do? It was a proper meal time. Besides as soon as he was done the others would leave to go sightseeing and he could finally have some privacy.

Louis watched as Niall looked over the different selections. He actually removed five of them from the fridge. Each time Niall had taken a drink Louis had been hopeful but all the boy did was put it to the side. When Niall removed the sixth Louis had just sighed, he was surprised when Niall handed the drink up to him.

Looking at it Louis noted that it was the only chocolate one in the entire bunch. It didn’t matter, as long as Niall drank the damn thing.

“That’s perfect.” He praised.

Niall nodded his head in acknowledgement and moved back to the window before opening his shake. To Louis’ relief the kid didn’t fight drinking the thing. It was a relief that Niall was willing to do something.

Louis knelt down and started to put the shakes back in the fridge when Liam spoke up. “You mean we had to deal with a fit and three escape attempts all because he wanted the chocolate shake?!”

It finally clicked. Niall thought the vanilla shakes were boring. That’s why he’d shoved them all out of the way and went for the sole chocolate shake. He’d have to get more of those, before the next morning apparently.

“It seems as though he doesn’t like vanilla.” Louis shrugged.

“Unbelievable.” Harry grumbled. “I got jabbed in the stomach all because he doesn’t like vanilla.”

Harry and Liam headed out to get ready for the day out and nurse their various bruises – Niall could fight dirty. Louis clearly had a better handle on things.

Louis tried not to chuckle because Niall shouldn’t be hitting the others, and he was positive the boy was listening to this conversation, of that Louis was sure. He shook his head and started prepping snacks for Niall for while they were out. It was important to keep to the schedule that the doctor assigned.

Niall sat on the windowsill, looking out the window and drinking his shake. It was more filling than he’d originally anticipated and he soon found himself becoming full.

Niall listened to what the others boys were saying on the other side of the room. He didn’t see the problem with refusing to drink something boring, and vanilla was boring. It was bland. If Liam or Harry had offered to let him choose he wouldn’t have argued with them. He barely stopped himself from snorting when Harry complained about being elbowed in the gut, really that was hardly anything. There were much more painful things.

Looking down at his shake Niall noticed that it was about half gone but he was full, he really couldn’t finish it. Well, he’d drunk half of it and the others would just have to live with that. He capped the drink and set it aside, he’d wait until the others left before putting it up. Then he’d find a way to remove this damn tracking device.

Louis watched Niall, waiting for the boy to finish so that he could get dressed for the day. It was taking longer than Louis had expected though so he thought it might be a good idea to get some clothes set aside so that all Niall would have to do is go and change.

Niall turned when he heard drawers opening and closing. He couldn’t believe it when he saw Louis digging through his things. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Just getting some clothes out for you Niall.” Louis replied.

Niall frowned, “I’m already dressed.”

Louis paused in what he was doing and looked up at the boy on the windowsill. Niall was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. It was cold where they were, those clothes wouldn’t do. “You need a long sleeve shirt and some jeans. It’s cold out.”

“I’m aware of the weather and am dressed the way I wish.” Niall replied.

“It’s not up to you.” Louis stated simply.

Niall scowled, “It’s my life and my decision.”

“If you refuse to wear the clothes I’ve laid out for you then you will be staying inside all day.”

“What?” Niall asked, genuinely confused.

“If you don’t change then you won’t be allowed to go sightseeing”

Niall froze. They wanted him to come sightseeing with them? He knew that it shouldn’t make him feel as good as it did, that the boys wanted to include him. He was the one who told them that he wanted to quit and that he preferred when they had been ignoring him. Still, they wanted him to come along! He was going to get to go sightseeing without having to sneak out!

Before Louis could blink Niall had taken the clothes and rushed into the bedroom. Louis just shook his head. Maybe ordering wasn’t always the way to go – explaining and asking seemed to be working better today.

Niall was quick to change, excited about the possibilities of an outing that was actually sanctioned. At the same time he had to wonder if this was a good idea. When he went out on his own, though it wasn’t allowed, he was typically able to pass unnoticed by most people so long as he wore a hat and sunglasses to cover his face along with baggy clothes to hide who he was. It allowed him more freedom than going out with the others would. Alone he could pass as a normal tourist but when he was with Louis, Liam, Harry and the security team it was obvious who he was.

Admittedly Niall almost backed out until he remembered that going out alone also tended to end with a long lecture from security and a meeting with Bradford. On those meetings Niall had been made to walk every inch of every area he was ‘allowed’ to be at, non-stop for eight solid hours while being followed by Bradford on a golf cart who would hit him in the legs with a riding crop anytime he paused. It sucked, especially since he’d just had a day of walking while sightseeing. In the end he would spend an average of thirty to forty hours on his feet if he went off alone to sightsee on their days off. No it was better to go with the boys, he wouldn’t get in trouble for that. Would he?

“Niall?” Louis’ voice came through the door. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah.” Niall replied, broken out of his memories.

Moments later Louis was rewarded with the door opening up and Niall stepping out in the clothes he had set out on the bed for the boy. “I’m glad you want to come with us.”

Niall merely shrugged and put his other clothes back in his suitcase. He was only going with them because it would be sightseeing he couldn’t get in trouble for. He had no actual desire to go with the boys.

“Is there any particular place you wanted to go today?” Louis asked.

“Museums.” Niall answered.

“Museums?” Louis brightened. So Niall was interested in learning about where they were. All right, considering the books he had seen in the boys’ backpack that shouldn’t be news. Still, it was progress, wasn’t it?

Niall merely shrugged and went to the door, “I’ll meet you three down in the lobby.”

Louis shook his head, maybe not so much progress as he’d hoped. “No, Harry and Liam will be here any minute. Just find a seat.”

“There are seats in the lobby.”

“Niall you’re not going down to the lobby alone.”

“Why not?” Niall demanded.

“Because you’ll be ambushed.”

“No I won’t.”

“You’re one fourth of the world’s biggest band. Do you really think that no one will recognize you?” Louis asked incredulously.

Niall shrugged, “They never have before.”

Louis froze, “What?”

Niall was saved from answering by the door swinging open revealing a smiling Liam, “Whose ready to hit the town?”

Niall just rolled his eyes and started heading for the door. When he got to the hall he saw Harry waiting there as expected but he also noted that there were approximately twenty bodyguards there as well. “What’s with all the security?”

“They’re to make sure that we’re all safe.” Harry answered.

“And that we all stay together.” Louis finished.

Niall glared at Louis, knowing whom that comment had been pointed at. “The more security we have the more obvious it’ll be.”

“The more obvious what will be?” Liam questioned.

“Who we are.” Niall replied slowly, condescendingly.

“Niall.” Louis scolded.

Niall rolled his eyes and walked towards the elevators. He hated them but knew that he wasn’t going to get to take the stairs. Not if anyone else had anything to say about it.

Louis watched as Niall sulked towards the elevators. He wanted to make this a good day for Niall; the poor boy hasn’t had many of those in his life. “Hey guys.” He said holding Liam and Harry back a little.

“What’s up?” Liam asked.

“Let’s do this right today yeah?” Louis said. “Niall deserves that.”

“Agreed.” Harry nodded. “Any idea where he wants to go?”

Louis shrugged, “He said he wanted to see the museums. He wasn’t specific though.”

“Well then let’s start with the closest one and branch out from there.” Liam agreed.

“Museums?” Harry whined. “They’re boring.”

“Well that’s where Niall wants to go.” Louis stated simply.

“Yeah.” Harry sighed. “Still boring though.”

“Don’t worry Haz,” Liam tried to comfort. “We’ll go to a nice pub for lunch.”

“No.” Louis cut in. “Niall can’t have alcohol because of his weight. No pubs or bars, or kroegs, or drenkplaats or whatever they call it here. Understood?”

Liam and Harry pouted but nodded their heads in acceptance. This day was about Niall. They had all mistreated the kid and now they wanted to have a day for him. Still, did Niall really want to go to museums? And no alcohol? Life could suck at times.

Louis was about to head to join Niall and the security at the elevators when Liam held him back. “What’s up?”

“Did Niall finish his breakfast?” Liam asked.

Louis sighed, “He drank about half of it.”

“Is that enough?”

“The doctor said that we shouldn’t force more upon him than he could handle. His stomach is very small at the moment and can’t handle much. He’ll get better.”

Liam shook his head, “If you’re sure.”

Louis closed his eyes and prayed for a good day. He just wanted Niall to have a good day.


	15. The Museum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First I would like to say that I am sorry this has taken so long to update. I have been extremely busy and also had writers block, my mind just kept coming up with stories for other shows. Also I still have classes even though it's summer and I'm tutoring other children so while I'm not working technically I still am. I'm also on vacation and have another trip planned and I have family obligations. Needless to say I'll update when I can but promise nothing. Enjoy.

They started at the history museum an hour from the hotel. Niall had been shocked when he looked out the car window and saw where they had stopped.

“What are we doing here?” Niall asked.

“You said you wanted to go to museums.” Louis answered. “Is this not the kind of museum you like?”

Niall was confused. What did it matter what he wanted to do? “I… yeah sure.”

“If you’d rather go someplace else…” Harry offered. Museums weren’t really his cup of tea.

Liam and Louis both shot Harry a glare. They knew that this wasn’t Harry’s idea of a wonderful day but this wasn’t about Harry, it was about Niall.

Niall took the hint Harry was giving, “We can go anywhere. I don’t care.”

“But I really wanted to go to the history museum.” Liam spoke up.

“It looks really cool.” Louis agreed.

“Yeah.” Harry said after warning looks from Louis and Liam.

Niall didn’t understand what was going on but let it alone. He did want to see the history museum – he could make this fast and after they could go someplace that the others found more interesting.

Louis was confused when Niall sped through the first two rooms of the museum. He thought Niall wanted to see the museum. As he looked over to the other two he noticed the grin on Harry’s face and understood what Niall was doing.

“Hold up” Louis called to the blonde a few paces in front of them.

Niall quickly turned back to face Louis thinking that the man had finally decided to admit that they were leaving and this was all a hoax, he’d expected it anyways. And Niall thought he was right when Louis came over, slung his arm around Niall’s shoulders and started leading them both back towards the start.

Louis took Niall back to the beginning of the museum and stopped at the first exhibit. “Sorry, you were going a bit fast for me. I didn’t get the chance to read everything”

Niall furrowed his brow in confusion, “Didn’t know you were that interested in history.”

“Of course we are” Liam said gently patting Niall on the back as he too leaned forward to read the information posted by the exhibit.

Both Liam and Louis noted that Niall wasn’t reading but rather shooting inquisitive looks at Harry. They also saw that Harry was standing back a little with a down turned mouth.

Liam signaled to Louis that he would take care of Harry and moved back towards the younger boy.

“Harry” Liam hissed.

“What?” Harry asked annoyed.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m standing in a history museum bored instead of going around to the different clubs having fun”

Liam wanted to hit Harry. He understood that Harry was the youngest and used to getting his way – Liam Louis and Zayn had often given into every of Harry’s whims because he was the ‘baby’ of the group. Regardless though it was quite clear who the baby was and it wasn’t Harry. Not that Niall was a baby, nor was he technically the youngest but dam the kid sure looked like the youngest. Also this was a day for Niall. Harry would just have to get used to not being the center of attention any more. Now yes Harry would still receive attention and be coddled more than Liam or Louis but Niall was the new ‘baby’ in terms of care and that was the way it had to be.

“Well you need to get over yourself and start having a good time.” Liam scolded.

Harry’s jaw dropped. Liam had never spoken like that to him before. “Hey I’m standing here aren’t I? I didn’t refuse to come.”

“No but it’s quite obvious how you feel about being here.”

“So what?”

“So, Niall’s picked up on it and is trying to speed through this so that we can do what you want to do”

“And?” Harry didn’t see the problem; he always selected outings.

“And this day is for Niall or have you forgotten? I mean it’s not as though it would be a first”

“That was low” Harry glared, “I’m not the only one that forgot Niall”

“No but you are the only one whose acting like a petulant two year old because there’s a new baby”

With that Liam walked away, back to Niall and Louis.

Harry was furious, guilt ridden, and slightly depressed all at once. He didn’t want to be in a stupid museum, he didn’t like that Niall was getting to dictate where they went today. He was always the one that choose where they went, what they saw, what they did, none of the other boys had complained before. But he was older now, he wasn’t some little sixteen year old anymore, he was twenty-one now – but so was Niall. Yet the boys hadn’t ignored him, they hadn’t told him he was fat or stupid, management hadn’t been running him into the ground or sending him to Bradford, he didn’t have to play in the band or attend band meetings, he got days off – unlike Niall.

Sighing Harry begrudgingly admitted that Liam was right; he was acting like a spoiled child because he was no longer the center of attention. But he didn’t need to be the center of attention anymore; he was grown now, able to take care of himself. Niall wasn’t. Niall did need to be the center of attention. Niall deserved this day. He’d agreed to help give Niall this day.

Louis had taken to reading the information from the different exhibits aloud and quickly noticed how he’d gained Niall’s full and undivided attention when he did so. Liam came over and joined in which gave Louis’ voice a rest and allowed Niall to feel more included in a group outing rather than just being with Louis.

Liam noted out of the corner of his eye when Harry came to join them again. He was pleased to see that the younger man was in a better mood than he had been before and decided to encourage this, “You want to read this one Harry?”

Harry’s eyes shot up to Liam’s before he looked down at the plaque, “Uh… sure”

Niall listened as all the boys took turns reading about the different exhibits in the museum. He was having a good time, he would admit. Listening to them read it aloud was wonderful, it gave him the chance to study the piece as he was told about it. By the time they came to the last exhibit he was a little sad, he didn’t want the tour to end. Still everything had to end sometime.

As they exited the museum Harry spotted the gift shop and quickly drug everyone into it. “Let’s look around”

Liam chuckled but agreed seeing no harm, “Alright but stick together”

Everyone nodded and they started wondering the little store.

It wasn’t long before Harry found the toy pirate swords and plucked two out. He handed one to Liam and then brought his own up, “En Guard”

Liam took the challenge and started swinging his sword to attack Harry. Niall laughed a little as he watched the scene before him but Louis wasn’t too thrilled.

“Guys, I don’t think this is such a good idea” Louis warned.

Naturally Harry and Liam ignored him.

Fifteen minutes later and the boys of one direction found themselves being thrown out of the gift shop by two very irate employees. “We’re sorry” Liam and Harry repeated over and over but it did no good. Niall was really trying to hide his laughter but it was proving to be futile. Louis was mad.

Everyone was quiet as they headed back to the van. Harry and Liam were walking with their heads hung, Niall was finally starting to control his laughter and Louis was fuming.

Once they were all settled in their seats and on their way back to the hotel Louis turned and started yelling. “I can’t believe you two! What were you thinking? You could have seriously hurt someone.”

“We’re sorry” Harry said.

“We didn’t know that would happen” Liam explained.

“That’s no excuse” Louis scolded, “I told you to stop the moment you picked those swords up”

“We were doing fine with the swords, it wasn’t until I tripped over the shield Liam dropped that I knocked the shelves over.” Harry said.

“Well I wouldn’t have dropped the shield if you hadn’t have rammed me into the wall” Liam replied.

“Well I wouldn’t have rammed you into the wall it you hadn’t knocked me down” Harry argued.

“I wouldn’t have knocked you down if you hadn’t been throwing things at me!”

“I wouldn’t have been throwing things at you if hadn’t picked the shield up!”

“Well I had to have a way to defend myself when you took another sword!”

“I only took another sword because you smacked me in the head and I wanted a way to block you properly!”

“I only smacked you in the head because you hit me in the leg!”

“I hit you in the leg because you picked up a bigger sword!”

“Because you hit me in the arm with yours!”

“ENOUGH!” Louis roared. “None of this would have happened if the two of you hadn’t been playing with those damned swords in the first place. Those are toys for children! What made you think they were meant for you?”

Liam and Harry started to explain but Louis just held up his hand to silence them, “When we get back to the hotel the two of you are going to write letters of apology to those shop keepers and then you are going to come back here and give them the letters along with a check to cover the damages, and yes that includes the window…”

And cash register” Niall threw in.

“And cash register,” Louis agreed, “And the swords, shield…”

“Bookcase” Niall added.

“Bookcase, items on the shelves that were damaged”

“And the fire extinguisher” Niall supplied.

“And the fire extinguisher” Louis finished, “Understood?”

“Yes” both Harry and Liam answered dejectedly.

The rest of the ride back to the hotel was silent except for the occasional, not so suppressed, giggle coming from the blonde head.

When they returned to their hotel Liam and Harry went to accomplish their assigned tasks while Louis ordered room service for himself and Niall. They’d spent four hours in the museum, it was amazing how much time one could spend in such a place – and that was before the gift shop.


End file.
